Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Start-ups in ICT, biotech, medtech and fintech raised the most investment Venture capital investment in Swiss start-ups doubled during the first half of 2019 to exceed CHF1 billion ($1.01 billion). After record investment in 2018, the venture capital market has stayed strong in 2019, according to dataexternal link published on Tuesday by Swiss company Venturelabexternal link. It shows equity investments rose to CHF1.02...

[caption id="attachment_281116" align="alignleft" width="400"] Schaffhausen Cantonal Bank says the fine will not affect results as it had already put money aside to cover the penalty.[/caption] The Schaffhausen Cantonal Bank has settled a tax evasion dispute with the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia with a €3.9 million (CHF4.3 million) payment. The penalty clears the bank for all damages in Germany. The...

In 2018 Vitol boasted growth of 26.8% for a total turnover of CHF226 billion Commodity trader Vitol has taken the top spot in the ranking of the largest companies in Switzerland by total turnover, relegating Zug-based Glencore to second place. According to the rankingexternal link published in the Handelszeitung on Thursday, in 2018 Vitol boasted growth of 26.8% for a total turnover of CHF226 billion ($231 billion)...

In 2018, Switzerland topped the Financial Secrecy Index, produced by the Tax Justice Network The Swiss government wants to revamp the laws against money laundering so that lawyers, notaries and other advisors are required to comply with due diligence obligations. The Federal Council (executive body) proposed on Wednesday a set of legal amendments external linkto meet international standards in the fight against money...

© Andor Bujdoso | Dreamstime.com The gap between Switzerland’s official retirement age – 65 for men and 64 for women – and average life expectancy is long. Life expectancy at 65 is 20 years for men (85) and 23 for women (88). More and more people are questioning the viability of living for two decades or more without working, particularly when the population is aging and the pension system is crumbling. However, rather...

There is a 1:252 pay gap ratio between the lowest and highest paid staff at the Swiss bank UBS Large wage gaps continue by gender and within Switzerland’s largest 26 firms, according to two new surveys. According to the Federal Office for Statisticsexternal link, the median gross salary of male full-time employees in Switzerland stood at CHF85,200 ($87,276) last year, while for full-time female employees it was...

Dancing, the federal health office says, is a good way to keep off the weight. Swiss seniors are much more likely to be overweight that other age categories, new statistics from the Federal Office for Public Health (FOPH) show. Some 53% of over-65-year-olds have a body mass index judged to be too high (over 25 on the BMI scale), according to the statistics released on Tuesday by the FOPHexternal link. Older men are more...

The Swiss Foundation for Consumer Protection accuses Swiss influencers of not correctly labelling certain Instagram posts as advertising. A Swiss consumer protection organisation has filed a complaint against Swiss tennis star Roger Federer and several other celebrity “influencers”, accusing them of “stealth advertising” on Instagram and other social media sites. The Swiss Foundation for Consumer Protectionexternal link...

There has been pressure to curb the earnings of top executives in Switzerland. The salaries of top managers at Swiss government-affiliated companies shrank last year due to smaller bonuses, according to a federal report published on Friday. Top state earner, Andreas Meyer, head of Swiss Federal Railways, saw his earnings fall below CHF1 million for the first time: down to CHF987,442 ($1 million) from CHF1,007,000 in...

The tit-for-tat strategies between Switzerland and the EU appear to take their course over access to each other’s stock exchanges and a framework agreement. The Swiss finance ministry has reaffirmed that it is ready to ban stock exchanges in the European Union from trading Swiss shares – in a worsening row with Brussels over the future of bilateral relations. “In the event of stock market equivalence not being extended,...