SNB & CHF

07.07.2020 – Foreign demand was strong in 2019. The income side of the tourism balance of payments grew, reaching a record level of CHF 17.8 billion. At the same time, people living in Switzerland did not increase their expenditure when travelling abroad, despite price conditions that were more favourable. The tourism balance of payments was negative at CHF -798 million, according to initial estimates from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Saldo der...

Die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA erteilt OSIF und OSFIN die ersten Bewilligungen als Aufsichtsorganisationen, zuständig für die Aufsicht über Vermögensverwalter und Trustees. Weiter liess sie die erste Registrierungsstelle für Kundenberaterinnen und Kundenberater zu. Das Eidgenössische Finanzdepartement anerkannte ausserdem die ersten Ombudsstellen nach FIDLEG für Finanzdienstleister. Die FINMA erteilt dem Organisme de Surveillance des Instituts...

In recent years locals in Lucerne have protested against overtourism in their city. © Keystone / Alexandra Wey Some popular travel destinations have enjoyed the break – however temporary – from tourist crowds following Covid-19 restrictions. Others hope the hordes will return soon. Switzerland had not yet opened its border with Italy when its southern neighbour unexpectedly announced that Swiss citizens could enter the country starting on June 3. A day later, Sylvain...

On June 29, the German parliament reacted as parliaments normally do when there is a problem, namely, by allowing the government to spend more. In order to respond to the economic difficulties due to the corona epidemic and the government restrictions, it passed a typical Keynesian stimulus package in order to boost aggregate demand. The self-set goal of the economic stimulus package is to lead the German economy back to a “sustainable growth path…that will secure...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.10% to 1.064 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 7(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The S&P 500 rallied 1.6% yesterday to extend the streak to a fifth consecutive session, and the longest of the year and completed the negation of a bearish technical pattern. However, the main feature today is a wave of profit-taking on risk assets. Most equity markets moved lower in...

Lekkerland supplied some 2,700 retailers in Switzerland. © Keystone / Christian Beutler A company that supplies Swiss motorway service stations and convenience stores has gone into liquidation after failing to find new investors. Some 144 jobs at Lekkerland Switzerland are now at risk of disappearing by the end of the year. The company on Monday said it was concentrating on finding new suppliers for the 2,700 stores that it currently services. It is also making...

Significant majority of men and women believe women need to be equally involved in long-term financial decisions to achieve true gender equality, yet half of women let their spouses take the lead COVID-19 has worsened inequalities, with women more focused on household duties and men more focused on finances Despite pre-marital intentions, millennial women are most likely to defer financial decisions to their spouses New York, July 6, 2020 – According to UBS Global...

I began my career as a reporter on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, covering the currency futures and short-term interest rate futures for a news wire. Among other things, I learned that often, the locals, people trading with their own money and wits, would take the opposite side of trades of the institutional players. The institutional operators had deeper pockets but were looking to lay-off risk. It was a David vs. Goliath story often. It is,...

Most Long-Term Trends Have Not Changed A lot has changed over the last 4 months since the COVID virus started to impact the global economy. Asia was infected first with China at ground zero. Their economy succumbed first with a large part of the country shut down to a degree that can only be accomplished in an authoritarian regime. The rest of Asia responded to the initial outbreak better than the Chinese (and most everywhere else we now know) and generally mitigated...

Jay Powell’s 2018 case for his economic “boom”, the one which was presumably behind his hawkish aggression, rested largely upon the unemployment rate alone. A curiously thin roster for a period of purported economic acceleration, one of the few sets joining that particular headline statistic in its optimism resides in the lower tiers of all statistics. The sentiment contained within the ISM’s PMI’s were at least in the same area as the unemployment rate, and...