Swiss banks have various functions in fiction:

• Depository of secrets carried across generations
  Holcroft Covenant, A matter of Honour, The Da Vinci Code ,
• Sign of illegal activities
  The Spanish Prisoner, The Bourne Ultimatum, Smiley's People
• Secure stash for the proceeds of high-profile crimes
  The Day of the Jackal, The Saint, Goldfinger
• Drop for spies
  The Bourne Identity, The Sword of Gideon/Munich/Vengeance
• Other functions : Sign of financial success, Intermediary in important business transactions

Fiction makes full use of the glamour of Swiss banks, pseudonym and numbered accounts and safe deposit boxes, without too much concern for realism. It can cast an unfair, if brilliant, image of the Swiss banking industry.

Clearly, Swiss banks are no longer, if they have ever been, a place where criminals can deposit millions on a no-questions-asked basis. Quite the contrary. As for spies 'dead drops' one cannot exclude the possibility that this does still exist, but the banks must ignore it lest they called the police.

Does the mere fact of having a Swiss bank account warrant suspicion that the account holder is up to no good? Certainly not, but in the case of public officials who are supposed to live off their salary, it would be fair to have some doubt. As a matter of facts, Swiss banks now use powerful databases supposed to list every single public official, politician, magistrate, minister in the world. If a client shows up on the list, he needs to go through a very thorough 'due diligence' process to ensure his funds are not the proceeds from tax theft - corruption.