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A report by The Boston Consulting Group highlights the size of Switzerland’s personal offshore wealth management sector. © Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com Total personal offshore wealth grew by 6% to reach US$8.2 trillion in 2017. US$2.3 trillion (28%) of this was managed in Switzerland. The top three offshore centres: Switzerland ($2.3 trillion), Hong Kong ($1.1 trillion) and Singapore ($0.9 trillion) made up more than half (52%) of the total. If past trends continue, Hong Kong and...

Yesterday, Switzerland’s National Council, or parliament, voted 95 to 94, with 3 abstentions, to introduce quotas for the management and boards of quoted companies. © Lovelyday12 | Dreamstime.com Boards will be required to have 30% women and management teams 20%. The rules could affect 250 companies. At the same time the quotas will not come with sanctions. Companies would have to explain why the quotas had not been met and set out plans to meet them in the future. Speaking to RTS, Simonetta...

PostBus, the nation’s postal bus service, receives government aid based on its financial performance. © Artzzz _ Dreamstime.com With around 2,200 bright yellow buses operating on around 900 routes, it forms an important part of Switzerland’s transport network and employs around 4,000 people. However, not long after the private PostBus company was created in 2006, it started manipulating its accounts. An independent investigation calculated that unjustified state subsidies paid to it from 2007...

Last week, Vaud’s government announced a plan for future tax cuts. © Erix2005 | Dreamstime.com The residents of Vaud are among the highest taxed in Switzerland. In 2016, a single person in Lausanne earning CHF 100,000 paid CHF 16,050 in cantonal and communal tax on top of CHF 1,840 of federal tax. This was the fourth highest across all of Switzerland’s 26 cantonal capitals, and almost triple Zug, the lowest, where the figure was CHF 5,750 – see chart below. Against this background, the news...

Against the wishes of the Federal Council, Switzerland’s upper house, the Council of States, rejected a plan to prevent people from withdrawing lump sums from their 2nd Pillar pensions, according to the newspaper Tribune de Genève. © Edgars Sermulis | Dreamstime.com Last week, the Council of States voted 25 to 15 to reject the plan. The Federal Council thinks forcing people to convert their pension money into an annuity, which pays a regular income on retirement, will reduce the number of...

The number of registered unemployed in Switzerland dropped by 9% in May 2018 to a rate of 2.4%, down from 2.7% in April, according to a report by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The rate in May 2018 was 22% lower than in May 2017. © Sculpies | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s unemployment hasn’t been this low since 2008. In March 2018, SECO changed the way it calculates unemployment and estimates this change reduced the rate of registered unemployment by 0.1%. The lowest rates...

Last week, Nestlé announced plans to cut its Swiss workforce by 580. Nestle_Hauptsitz_03 The plans involve restructuring its IT department, with a focus on extending its technology hub in Spain. Over the next 18 months, this re-organization could lead to a reduction of up to 500 IT positions in Switzerland, said the company. A source close to Nestlé told Le News that around two thirds of the cuts will occur in Vevey and the remaining third in Lausanne and at the company’s data centre in...

Every three months the rate of interest used to set Swiss rents is reviewed. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. This time it remained at 1.50%. © Asdf_1 | Dreamstime.com The last time it dropped was 1 June 2017 when it fell to its lowest level since 2008. The rate is based on the average Swiss mortgage rate over three months. This rate is then rounded to the nearest 0.25%. This time that rate was 1.51%, which rounds to 1.5% In general if your rental...

A recent report published by UBS shows real estate price changes in european mountain resorts. © Tatiana Vasilieva | Dreamstime.com Over the last year, Verbier (-3.2%) and Crans Montana (-3.0%) experienced the largest price declines, while Saas Fee (+14.3%) and St. Moritz (+7.4%) climbed the most. Prices rises in the Jungfrau region (+4.8%) Gstaad (+1.5%), Flims/Laax (+2.8%), Andermatt (+1.5%), Zermatt (+1.6%) and Davos/Klosters (+1.1%) were more moderate. Despite Verbier’s decline, property...

Universal retirement at a set age is a relatively modern concept. In 1900, 54% of French and 58% of Germans over 65 were working, according data presented by Dr. Marco Salvi of the Swiss think tank Avenir Suisse. © Gemphotography | Dreamstime.com In some countries, such as the US, Japan and Iceland, there were relatively high numbers of older workers until quite recently. In 1960, 29% of Americans over this age were working. In 1968, 34% of over 65s in Japan were in work. And, as recently as...