( CNN ) -- They 've been in the banking business for more than 200 years , Pictet and Company came to prominence when Europe was booming , specializing in personalized , discrete banking services . Senior managing partner of Swiss bank Pictet & Cie , Ivan Pictet talks to CNN 's Andrew Stevens . Since 1980 , the company has grown five-fold to be one of the biggest banks in Switzerland . But growth has n't changed tradition says Ivan Pictet . CNN 's Andrew Stevens met with Ivan in China to talk about leading the banking dynasty into today 's tumultuous financial water and what really defines Swiss banking . Pictet : I think Swiss banking has changed , it still has a very strong position in the world 's banking , but it has changed . Banking secrecy has evolved toward the new legislation on money laundering and so on , so confidentiality is not defined the same way today as it would have been , or not protected today as it would have been 25 years ago . So I think everything is changing but we restrict to some very strong principles , and I think that 's very important . Stevens : We 've been talking about the fit with the Swiss with private banking -- the Swiss character , the Swiss style -- last year though , you , for the first time , brought in non-Swiss to be investors , managing directors who can invest in the bank , and I 'm wondering , does that in some way dilute your brand as a Swiss bank , now you 're bringing non-Swiss in ? Pictet : Pictet has had a profit participation system since 1991 . We were probably the pioneer in Europe and probably the world at that time , so we have distributed large part of our profit to our employees at all time . Today , out of the 3,000 or 2,700 people we have , about 1,400 have a direct participation -- can go from 10 percent to 200 or 300 percent of their salary , so in order for us to keep our best talents , and to stimulate those who would like to join the league , we have created this special group which has a participation , direct participation , in the capital of the bank . Stevens : One of the principles you stick to is that you and your seven partners bear personal responsibility for the losses of the bank , your personal wealth is at stake everyday of the year , how does that impact the way you manage the bank ? Pictet : Well it certainly does make us more conservative , in terms of really remaining focused on one business , which is asset management . I mean we never diversify into investment banking or do any commercial activity in terms of banking and so on . We 've kept our business very focused and that has helped us also be quite successful . E-mail to a friend .
Ivan Pictet , senior managing partner of Pictet & Cie speaks in The Boardroom . In the last few years there has been a lot of talk about how to make it easier for companies to raise money from outside investors. Known for discrete banking , new legislation has changed the bank 's operations .