No one now disputes the scale of the financial crisis and recession, the most destructive since the 1930s. On the face of it, neither those lending nor those managing money were able to foresee the awesomeness of the disaster. Nor, indeed, can anyone claim to know how long it will last, let alone how to avoid all of its consequences.

Our Group, our portfolio managers and our clients are together feeling the pain of the markets' collapse. And together we are coping because we benefit from the strengths of a family-owned bank. I will mention but three of these.

To begin with, we do not allow ourselves to take major risks. So while we are obviously suffering collateral damage from the worldwide downturn, we are better shielded than most. Instinctive caution is a common trait among family-controlled businesses, whose superior long-term performance has been amply demonstrated. Many banks have only survived the current crisis through massive injections from new shareholders - often from sovereign wealth funds or national governments. Our Bank, by contrast, would lose its soul without its main shareholder, who across the generations has given it his name, his culture and his tradition. Our senior managers, who also have a stake in the Bank's share capital, keep a watchful eye on our shareholders' equity. Embedded in it is an essential asset: the name borne by all of our Group entities. And embedded in the name is our reputation, which after 250 years remains intact despite revolutions, wars, waves of persecution and stockmarket crashes–damaging in their own way.

Secondly, we have never strayed from our core business of private banking and wealth management. This speciality does not shelter us from every risk or miscalculation, but by sticking to what we do best we can focus on containing fallout from the current crisis. We believe that the loyalty of our clients and our teams is nurtured by the Group's own loyalty to our single line of business.

Finally, two and a half centuries of experience has taught our family that fortunes cannot be built and preserved without regard for the long run. The main lesson of the present predicament will be the need to reckon with time, a concern that in recent years fell by the wayside amid an overriding lust for gain. Interest rates, or time's opportunity cost, were choked by the glut of liquidity formed early in the decade. But cheap credit was a snub to the long view. Our own gaze, instead of on overnight success, is focused on lasting performance–for our Group and our clients alike.

If the maelstrom were to spin deeper, it is clear that nearly everything of value–and not just financial assets–would be towed under for a long time to come. But if continuing headway can be made in efforts to control the situation, and if the leaders of the great powers do not let themselves be won over by the selfish cause of protectionism, then the period of recovery is sure to yield a wealth of opportunities. This will be particularly true for healthy investment houses that did not squander their cash while the sun shone and which kept a supply aside for the current harsh winter and the first buds of spring.

Exploiting opportunities should not mean shamefully snapping up bargains to profit from the damage inflicted by finance itself. What I have in mind, actually, is investment in genuine sunrise segments that will undoubtedly drive the next wave of growth. Our family and our Group were already wading into two such areas of opportunity before the financial crisis erupted.

The first of these is ecology. I do not mean the baleful kind that prohibits, stymies and stalls, but rather the sort that fuels growth with new projects to make it sustainable. From this standpoint, America's new president has set a new course that will change the world. And it was high time: what was once a question of “alternative” now represents a burning obligation towards our children.

The emerging economies are a second realm of opportunity. After entertaining the prospect of their decoupling, the financial community is now shuddering at the thought of their implosion. Yet China, India and Latin America deserve neither such a pedestal nor such indignity. Clearly, demographics and savings will continue to power these engines of the future. Our Group is already present in these regions, and we would like to extend our influence. Our wish is for this new frontier to benefit from our expertise and for our investors to tap into this burgeoning El Dorado.

I know that for now the crisis is gouging individual fortunes, and mine is no exception. Our thanks go to our clients for their abiding trust and fresh endorsements: in 2008 all of our banks registered numerous account openings. The battering of major lending institutions alone cannot explain this outpouring of confidence, which seems more an attraction to our management style. We have always sought to do better in wealth preservation. Many of the techniques developed within our Group are designed to enhance the safety of state-of-the-art products.

Tomorrow's finance will be guided by a return to time-honoured principles, a fine illustration of which can be found in our family motto, Concordia, Integritas, Industria. Concordia, or unity, is the global village that alone can overcome recession, harness emerging economies to the upswing and rein in climate risk. Integritas, or ethics, consists of the mutual respect of labour and capital, failing which the system is torn asunder. Industria, or work, reminds us that there can be no respect for clients or employees without respect for the trade that we ply: those playing fast and loose with leverage ignored this at their peril.

Our Group held back during the years of wild opportunities. We can now abandon that restraint in a more bridled era. In Chinese the word "crisis" is written with two ideograms, one meaning danger and the other opportunity. In 2009, the Year of the Ox, opportunity cannot help but be bridled.

Baron Benjamin de Rothschild.