Tuesday , March 19 2024
Home / Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Investigation into collapse of Credit Suisse beset by delays

Executives tried to explain themselves at Credit Suisse’s last AGM. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / MICHAEL BUHOLZER In March 2023, Credit Suisse collapsed. An uncontrolled bankruptcy could only be prevented by big government aid and an emergency merger with competitor UBS. Switzerland is now waiting for a parliamentary inquiry report to reveal who was at fault as the bank disintegrated. For some, Credit Suisse’s management and ex-chairman Axel Lehmann are solely to blame for...

Read More »

CEO pay: can Switzerland compete with the US?

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan saw his pay nearly double over the last year. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / GEORGIOS KEFALAS Swiss CEOs are some of the best paid in Europe but compared to peers in the United States, their salaries look modest. Some in the Swiss pharmaceutical industry see this as a problem.   Jessica covers the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to big global companies and their impact in Switzerland and abroad. She’s always looking for a Swiss...

Read More »

SWISS reports highest ever profit 

SWISS’s turnover totalled CHF5.3 billion last year, the airline announced on Thursday KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / URS FLUEELER Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) saw record operating profit last year following a return to pre-pandemic revenue levels. SWISS’ turnover totalled CHF5.3 billion ($6 billion) last year, the airline announced on Thursday, a significant increase on the previous year’s CHF4.4 billion, and a return to 2019 levels for the first time since...

Read More »

Swiss exports to Russia suspected of evading sanctions

Swiss goods enter Russia via third countries. KEYSTON Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, Swiss exports to countries close to Russia have increased significantly – which points to a possible evasion of sanctions. Shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia. On February 28, 2022, Switzerland also reacted and adopted the EU sanctions. Since then, exports to Russia have been banned, with some exceptions such as...

Read More »

Switzerland’s marriage tax penalty back in the spotlight

Married couples in Switzerland are taxed together, unlike unmarried couples who are taxed individually. This often acts as a tax disincentive for one spouse to work, disproportionately affecting women. For many years, certain political parties have been pushing to remove what is essentially discrimination on the basis of marital status. The issue came back into the limelight this week in the run up to a 27 March 2024 deadline for the government to respond to an...

Read More »

More than 17,000 drivers fined in a month on one Zurich street

At the end of September 2023, driving was banned on a 60 metre section of Langstrasse in Zurich. To enforce the ban, cameras were later set up on 8 January 2024 to catch and fine errant drivers. Since then 17,310 fines have been issued. © Thomas-Stoiber – Dreamstime.comThe driving ban, which excludes buses, was introduced to make the area more cycling friendly and applies from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. At CHF 100 each, the recent fines have generated 1.7 million of...

Read More »

Swiss supercomputer aims to make AI open to all

Much of the progress being made in AI is captured within private companies aiming to keep in to themselves in order to profit from it. Open AI, a project started as an open-source non-profit has morphed into a largely closed-source profit-maximising project increasingly integrated into the software company Microsoft. Many see open-source as critical to the healthy development of AI. A super computer combined with the knowhow of Switzerlands world-leading federal...

Read More »

Swiss government deficit larger than predicted

© Bartolomiej Pietrzyk | Dreamstime.com The federal government spent less in 2023 than budgeted but overestimated revenue. The net effect was an additional shortfall of CHF 1.4 billion, reported SRF. At a media conference this week, finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said that the Federal Council was not aiming to raise a taxes to fund the additional shortfall. Raising taxes would require a constitutional amendment to get around the debt brake and would set a...

Read More »

Switzerland marks start of China’s ‘high-level exchange’ with Europe

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is visiting Switzerland this week. The official state visit by China’s second highest ranking official signals a renewal in Sino-Swiss ties and the kick-off of his “high-level exchange” with Europe. Here’s what you need to know about official Swiss-Chinese relations. Born in London, Simon is a multimedia journalist who has worked for www.swissinfo.ch since 2006. He speaks French, German and Spanish and focuses on science, technology and...

Read More »

Swiss banker pleads guilty to tax offences in the US

A Swiss banker has pleaded guilty to tax offences in the United States. Between 2008 and 2014, he allegedly helped wealthy US clients hide their assets from the US authorities in accounts at Zurich-based Ihag Privatbank. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link The former head of the Zurich-based Allied Finance Trust, a subsidiary of the Liechtenstein-based Allied Finance Group, and his “co-conspirators” transferred more than $60 million (CHF51.4 million)...

Read More »