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Swiss banks have agreed to tighten lending conditions for investment properties following concerns by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), a self-regulatory body. © Alexandre Zveiger | Dreamstime.comThe SBA, which represents most of Switzerland’s banks, has issued new lending guidelines requiring lending deposits of at least 25% of the assessed value of the property for residential investment properties. In addition, minimum annual loan repayments must reduce loans by one third over the...

A man in Zurich has been sentenced to close to four years in prison after receiving more than half a million francs of welfare despite possessing numerous cars and large bank balances, according to Tages-Anzeiger and reported in 20 Minutes. © Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.comThe 51 year old man from Kosovo, who received CHF 527,000 of welfare money between 2003 and 2014, failed to declare eight bank accounts, one with a balance of around CHF 196,000. In addition, between 2003 and 2015, he’d...

Agencies paying social welfare in Switzerland will be able to hire detectives to uncover fraud from 1 October 2019. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.comIn Switzerland, between 2009 and 2016, detectives were used on around 220 investigations a year. Two thirds of those trailed were found guilty of fraud. In 2016, the European court of human rights ruled that accident beneficiaries should not be tracked because there was no defined Swiss legal framework covering the practice. Then in 2017,...

Recently, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) unveiled the new 100 franc banknote. Only one note missing – © Janusz Pieńkowski | Dreamstime.comThe note’s design is inspired by Switzerland’s tradition of humanitarianism, represented on the note by water. The note remains blue but is much smaller than the existing one, making it easier to fit into wallets. The note is the last one in Switzerland’s ninth series of notes to be updated. Updating the series began in April 2016 with the...

A deal agreed between EFTA and the South American Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, with a combined population of 260 million, is close to signing. © Tomas Griger | Dreamstime.comEFTA includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Under the deal, 95% of Switzerland’s CHF 3.6 million annual exports to the bloc would be tariff free. The deal is important because the EU recently agreed a similar Mercosur deal, so this deal will maintain...

A majority of the candidates putting themselves forward for election as federal parliamentarians on 20 October 2019 favour raising Switzerland’s retirement age to 67, according to a survey done by Smartvote and reported in the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag. © Epicstock | Dreamstime.comThis could produce a parliamentary majority on the issue after the federal election. Switzerland’s official retirement age has moved into political focus as the country’s pay-as-you-go state pension system...

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute recently deciphered the structure of the CC chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7), a signaling protein. © Bogdan Hoda | Dreamstime.comCancer cells use CCR7 to guide themselves into the lymphatic system, spreading cancer throughout the body. The resulting secondary tumors, called metastases, are responsible for most cancer deaths. This new understanding of CCR7 is a break through that forms a foundation for developing drugs that could lead to treatments...

To anyone familiar with Swiss prices, the results of Eurostats’ 2018 European meat price comparison will come as no surprise. © Vadim Lerner | Dreamstime.comThe study compares the average meat price across 38 European countries to the average meat price across the EU (EU-28 nations). Meat includes beef and veal, pork, lamb, mutton and goat, poultry, other meats and edible offal, delicatessen and other meat preparations. At the bottom of the price ranking was Montenegro where meat...

Work-related stress is affecting more and more people in Switzerland, according to a study published by the Federal Statistical Office. © Ocusfocus | Dreamstime.comIn 2012, 18% said they felt stressed at work most of the time. By 2017, the same figure had risen to 21%. Nine potential drivers of on-the-job stress were looked at. Only 11% said they faced none of them, while 50% reported being exposed to at least three, up from 46% in 2012. Those between 15 and 29 (58%) and those working...

In the second quarter of 2019, the percentage of Switzerland’s population working rose by 1.1% and the percentage unemployed fell to 4.2%, based on the higher International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) measure. © Pressahotkey | Dreamstime.comIn the second quarter of 2019, 5.1 million people were working in Switzerland, 60% of the population. The number working rose 1.1% compared to the previous year, particularly among women (+2.0%). Employment rose 0.3% among men. The number of...