From the paragraph you quoted: > In 2003, the financial sector comprised an estimated 11.6% of Switzerland's GDP and employed approximately 196,000 people (136

From the paragraph you quoted: > In 2003, the financial sector comprised an estimated 11.6% of Switzerland's GDP and employed approximately 196,000 people (136,000 of whom work in the banking sector); this represents about 5.6% of the total Swiss workforce. So while it's clear that the banking sector is big, it's not the only thing propping up the Swiss economy. There are other prosperous countries in Europe (e.g. Norway) that don't have a disproportionally large banking sector, and some which do but recently failed (Cyprus, Iceland).