Tag Archives: 1) SNB and CHF

The collapse of Greensill Capital has been the biggest financial scandal of the year so far, having set off a massive public corruption scandal in the UK that has deeply embarrassed the ruling Conservative Party due to the close involvement of former PM David Cameron, who was on the Greensill payroll and was caught trying to steer relief funds meant for small businesses to Greensill to help avert its collapse. Most recently, Credit Suisse cited Greensill as its...

Authored by Egon von Greyerz via GoldSwitzerland.com, “Everything is on fire” – Heraclitus (535-475 BC) What Heraclitus meant was that the world is in a constant state of flux. But the big problem in the next few years is that the world will experience a fire of a magnitude never seen before in history. I have in many articles and interviews pointed out how predictable events are (and people). This is particularly true in the world economy. Empires come and go,...

On one hand, UBS seems hell bent on keep its new Gen Z employees who have recently been promoted to associate positions. After all, it was just hours ago that we wrote about how the bank was showering some newly promoted employees with one-time $40,000 bonuses. Yet on the other hand, UBS apparently isn’t as determined to hang on to certain other employees. The bank has reportedly re-started its “Reduction in Force” job cut plan this week, according to Bloomberg, who...

It looks like the hiring (and retention) shortage isn’t just for rank-and-file minimum wage jobs. UBS has now said that, amidst historic competition and a “retention crisis” in the investment banking world (which we noted weeks ago), it is going to pay a one time $40,000 bonus to its global banking analysts when they are promoted. This is double what some of the bank’s competitors are offering. It’s part of a push for lenders “to reward and retain younger employees...

After firing a raft of senior employees including its head of risk, Lara Warner, Credit Suisse has been struggling to move past a series of major risk-management failures that together could cost the bank $10 billion, or more, though the final tally of losses from the Archegos blowup isn’t yet known as the bank weighs whether it should cover some client losses associated with the “low risk” trade-finance funds that collapsed earlier this year. Following reports that...

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,Recently, my colleague, Egon von Greyerz, and I had some unabashed yet blunt fun calling out the staggering levels of open hypocrisy and policy desperation unleashed by former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan.Poor Alan was an easy target of what I described as the “patient zero” of the reckless interest rate suppression and unbridled monetary expansion policies of the Fed which have always led to equally reckless...

Authored by Nick Dunbar of Risky FinanceWhen the family office Archegos Capital abruptly imploded in late March, prompting $50 billion in block trades and $10 billion in losses at Credit Suisse, Nomura, UBS and Morgan Stanley, many bank analysts were taken by surprise. Last week, many of these analysts sounded frustrated listening to Credit Suisse’s earnings call in which senior management skirted round without giving any real detail about the disaster.“Do you think...

Financial and real estate wealth of households increases The Swiss National Bank is today publishing data on Q4 2020 as part of the financial accounts. Thus, household wealth data are now also available for the full year. Overall, financial assets held by households increased by CHF 108 billion to CHF 2,851 billion (up 3.9%) in 2020. High capital losses in Q1 2020 due to falling stock market prices were followed by a recovery during the remainder of the year. Both...

With effect from 1 May 2021, Astrid Frey will take on the function of Swiss National Bank delegate for regional economic relations for the Central Switzerland region. She succeedsGregor Bäurle, who assumed the posit ion of Head of the SNB’s Regional Economic Relations unit on 1 January 2021. After concluding her studies at the University of St. Gallen, Astrid Frei worked as an economist at Bank Sarasin & Cie, after which she joined the KOF Swiss Economic...

The Swiss National Bank is recalling its eighth-series banknotes as of 30 April 2021. From this date on, the banknotes from the eighth series lose their status as legal tender and can no longer be used for payment purposes. This does not apply to the public cash offices of the Confederation (SBB/CFF, Swiss Post), which will continue to accept eighth-series banknotes until 30 October 2021. Due to the revocation of the statutory exchange period on 1 January 2020, the...