Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

An initiative, approved by voters 25 years ago, wants heavy-goods vehicles to be in put on rail in a bid to reduce transalpine traffic (Archive picture). (Keystone/Martin Ruetschi) The Swiss government has decided to earmark CHF180 million ($182 million) as part of a package to promote the transfer of heavy-goods transport from road to rail. In its bill to parliament, the government foresees an extension of payments to transport companies using freight trains until...

The decision applies to bills starting in the sixth series issued in 1976, which includes the 100-franc note with a portrait of architect Francesco Borromini. Banknotes as old as 1976 can soon be traded in at the national bank following a decision by the federal government to eliminate the 20-year time limit. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues a new series of banknotes every 15 to 20 years and removes the old notes from circulation. Six months later, the old notes...

Sunrise had planned to acquire UPC for CHF6.3 billion. (© Keystone / Christian Beutler) Following shareholder pushback, Swiss telecom operator Sunrise has cancelled the purchase contract for the cable network operator UPC, officially burying the controversial deal. This is another failed attempt to challenge industry leader Swisscom. “Yesterday evening we cancelled the purchase agreement,” Sunrise CEO Olaf Swantee said on Wednesday. “The deal proposed by management...

The number of people from neighbouring countries commuting to Switzerland for work each day reached a record 325,000 this year. The increase was felt especially in cantons Ticino and Geneva. Following a slight drop in 2018, the Swiss job market is once again attracting cross-border workers in historically high numbers. Some 325,291 peopleexternal link entered the country each day in the third quarter of 2019, beating the previous record of 316,491 set in...

Born in Ravensburg, Germany, Klaus Schwab is the Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) (Keystone / Laurent Gillieron) World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab will not be receiving honorary Swiss citizenship, despite the idea having being mooted earlier this year. Such an honorary conferral of the passport has no basis in Swiss law, the Federal Justice Office announced on Tuesday, after it was contacted by the daily Südostschweiz...

The world’s billionaires had a tough time of it last year. The world lost 57 billionaires last year as economic woes and the unexpected strengthening of the US dollar wiped $388 billion (CHF386 billion) from their combined wealth. Switzerland had three fewer billionaires; the 33 who remain saw their bank accounts shrink by $16 billion. The latest edition of the Billionaires Reportexternal link from Swiss wealth manager UBS and consultants PwC made for grim reading...

© Swisshippo | Dreamstime.com The amount of money paid by “rich” cantons to “poor” ones will rise by CHF 61 million to CHF 5.3 billion in 2020, according to a recent government press release. The only French-speaking canton paying will be Geneva. All of the rest will see the sums they receive rise compared to 2019. In 2020, Geneva will pay CHF 275 million, down slightly from the CHF 300 million it paid in 2019. In 2020, the canton of Fribourg will receive CHF 387...

Extinction Rebellion Switzerland’s Facebook cover photo In September 2019, groups of people belonging to the group Extinction Rebellion blocked two road bridges in Lausanne. Local police cleared the bridges by removing, in some cases carrying, protesters away. On 7 November 2019, 117 of the people involved in the bridge protests were convicted and fined for breaking Switzerland’s penal code, according to RTS. One person was convicted of violence and the rest of...

The number vessels flying the Swiss flag will reduce from 47 in 2016 to 20. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Switzerland will incur a further CHF100 million ($101 million) loss as it continues to reduce its merchant shipping fleet. The ongoing bill for selling off ships and meeting their debt obligations has now risen to an estimated CHF300 million, the government has admitted. Eight more ships, from the Massmariner company, are to be sold off, bringing the size of the...

© Oleksandr Lutsenko | Dreamstime.com After a legal analyis the government of the canton of Geneva has decided that drivers of the ride hailing service are employees rather than independent contractors, effectively banning Uber from operating under its current model. In an interview with RTS, Mauro Poggia, a lawyer and Geneva state councillor, said that Uber is a transport company and as such must employ its drivers. Employees are treated differently to contractors....