Swiss banker: “Particularly good of you to come see me Mr Bond, particularly at such short notice.”
Bond: “If you can’t trust a Swiss banker, what’s the world come to?”

The only James Bond 007 movie with an actual Swiss bank is The World is Not Enough (from James Bond family motto 'Orbis Nec Sufficit'). The story is not from Ian Fleming, and the book has been written after the movie, a novelisation as it is called. We do not recommend the book but the movie is very entertaining.

Sir King, a British oil tycoon has purchased a secret report on terrorist attacks on his pipelines in the Caspian sea region. The report turns out to be about a computer bug threat on the nuclear arsenal in the former Soviet Republics. King gives the report to MI6, who discovers it is fake. King goes back to the seller to ask for his money back and, surprisingly, they tell him he should go and pick it up at a Swiss bank in Bilbao.

M sends James Bond to collect the money, as the fake report had been stolen from another MI6 agent, 0012 who had been killed in the process. Bond wants to know who killed him and he accepts the mission.

The movie opens with Bond walking the street in Bilbao, Spain, next to the Guggenheim museum. He enters a building with the doorplate reading “La Banque Suisse de l’Industrie (privée) Bilbao”. As he enters the banker's office, Bond is searched by three Armani-clad thugs who looked more like professional wrestlers than bankers, a rather unusual scene in a Swiss bank to say the least.

Bond is met by the Swiss banker Lachaise, an extremely well-groomed gentleman, who explains that they made every effort to return the money to its rightful owner.

A lady banker, Giulietta, comes in with a suitcase of fifty-pound sterling notes and hands Bond a receipt for a total of £3,030,003.03. Bond sees that the girl is certainly not Swiss, too dark skinned. Bond jumps at the banker after disarming the two bodyguards and tries to have him tell who killed his fellow agent in Omsk. Just before the banker speaks, Giuletta kills him and jumps out the window. Bond follows her with the case full of cash, using the curtains rope. He comes back to London with the cash and delivers it to M:

‘‘Is that the stolen report?’’ he asked.

M nodded and handed it to him. Bond set down his tumbler and began to thumb through the document.

‘‘Yes. Classified, from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. All it does is assess the computer bug threat on the nuclear arsenal in the former Soviet Republics.’’

Neither of them noticed that the ice in Bond’s tumbler was beginning to fizz.

‘‘What would King want this for?’’ he asked.

‘‘As I told you before, it wasn’t what he thought it was. He was led to believe the document was a secret report that identified the terrorists who’ve attacked a new oil pipeline he’s building in the region, Kazakhstan…Azerbaijan…that part of the world. He’s had quite a bit of trouble with bands of local tribesmen who get hold of explosives and vandalize his operations. He thought the report would pinpoint who the real culprits are and he could go to the proper authorities with it. But when he discovered the report concerned nuclear weapons, he turned it over to me, immediately. It turns out the thing’s worthless. It’s nothing new to us.’’

The ice continued to fizz, unnoticed.

‘‘Interesting,’’ Bond said. ‘‘So Sir Robert gave this worthless report to MI6, and then we received a call about the money?’’ [...]

‘‘It’s all a bit of a mystery, isn’t it? Everyone in that bank office died, except the girl. And me.’’

Bond understands the trap but too late. In the cash there is explosive triggered by Sir Robert King's pin. The case goes off and he dies. Giuletta, the assistant at the Swiss bank, had planted the explosive and made sure the banker did not speak and that Bond could escape with the cash to deliver it to King.

Reality check
The name of the bank is plausible enough, although the mention "privée" in this context is meaningless. Either it should read "banquiers privés" to indicate the bank is an unlimited partnership, or it could be a second line with "banque privée" to indicate it specializes in helping wealthy clients invest their assets rather than offer the normal banking services of current accounts and mortgages. In the real world, the name of the city where it is located would be written only if it is part of the legal name of the bank, which here would imply it's a registered branch office, not impossible. In the movie we see "Bilbao" on the doorplate so that people who do not know the Bilbao Guggenheim museum could tell where the scene is happening.

Swiss bankers never clearly never have their clients frisked, but in this scene it helps build up some tension, seeing a disarmed Bond alone in a room with two armed bodyguards.

Some Swiss banks do have 'rep offices' abroad, but they never handle cash. Now in the fictitive case of an official MI6 operation it is not utterly implausible that a Swiss bank would try to organize the delivery of a valuable object to a client. The problem is that in the movie, the cash contains a bomb that explodes in the next scene. So the question arises, how did the cash get there? The bank must have counted it since Bond gets a receipt with some fees. So if they counted it, how come they missed the bomb? Or there were accomplices of the terrorist within the bank, quite unlikely.

The banker has a French accent and uses French words like Bon or Voilà in the middle of his English phrases, not very realistic of they way Swiss bankers speak English but a decent way of showing the audience the banker is Swiss. The lady banker has a Spanish accent, quite plausible as Swiss banks employ international staff and in a rep office they would have local staff as well.

The banker hands Bond a box of Cuban cigars. This is quite plausible although increasingly clients of Swiss banks are non smokers, which means the banker would not have started lighting a cigar before asking Bond if he wants one, by fear of indisposing him with his smoke. The fact that the cigars are cuban are not a tribute to the Swiss banker's discerning taste, but a rather cheap gimmick to show how blissfully unconcerned of other countries' regulations he is, given the US embargo on Cuban products.

The Swiss banker is seen here as a man whose profession is that of being devious, amoral, whose morals can be bought for cash and who hides behind the neutrality of his job to look the other way when his clients are doing horrible deeds. He returns the money paid by Sir Robert King, a personal friend of Bond’s boss M, for a stolen report Robert King bought from a man who killed an MI6 agent for it. Bond comes to find out who killed his colleague who tried to save Elektra. Bond holds banker at gunpoint to ask him a name. The Swiss banker is killed by knife in the neck before he can say anything, swift justice for the banker who was about to betray his client.

There is a passing reference to the dormant accounts affair when the banker says "I am just trying to return the money to its rightful owner" and Bond replies "And we know how hard that is for a Swiss banker". The line is lost on most people anyway and only illustrates the recent Bond movies habit of mentioning the social issue of the day.

The interiors of the bank were shot at Pinewood studio with the outside views projected on panels in the back. The lady banker was originally cast as the lead female Elektra King but her English was not good enough. She insisted to have a small part and got this role.

The bank statement is not very realistic, it says “Account Mr Robert King”, “Final statement”. Some photos of the actual location of the Swiss bank exteriors in Bilbao here

Generally speaking this is a rather entertaining movie and the opening sequence in the Swiss bank is quite spectactular even though it is not very realistic and gives a tainted image of the profession.