Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

© Tatiana Kozachenko | Dreamstime.com In Switzerland, over the three months following 31 May 2020, there have been 11,306 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 91 deaths, a case fatality rate (CFR) of 0.8%. However, up to this date there were 30,862 cases and 1,920 deaths, a CFR of 6.2%. Why has Switzerland’s CFR fallen so steeply? A number of factors could explain the decline. Testing The first is testing. Recorded case numbers before 1 June 2020 are not comparable to...

After appointing an auditor last December, FINMA decided to open so-called enforcement proceedings. © Keystone/Lukas Lehmann The Swiss financial supervisor FINMA says it has opened enforcement proceedings against Credit Suisse into the 2019 spying affair that toppled the bank’s leadership and tarnished its reputation. FINMA opened the proceedings after an auditor appointed last December completed its investigation of Credit Suisse, which has acknowledged...

More than half of new vehicles registered in Switzerland are 4x4s. Keystone / Gaetan Bally The Swiss government is easing the pressure on the automotive industry to reduce CO2 emissions, reports Sunday newspaper Le Matin Dimanche. In its revision of the CO2 ordinance to mitigate global warming, the government had agreed to lower the limit on CO2 emissions to 95g/km from 2020. However, this year car importers can exclude 15% of the most polluting vehicles from their...

Swissport has been hit hard by the adverse impact of coronavirus on the aviation industry. Keystone / Stephanie Lecocq A consortium of investors has agreed a €800 million (CHF860 million) bailout of Chinese-owned airport services company Swissport. Revenues at the company have nosedived since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The consortium of US and British private equity firms and banks will buy out the majority stake currently held by Chinese conglomerate...

London’s financial district. Britain and the EU are negotiating financial regulation post-Brexit, with Switzerland caught in the middle. Keystone / Hannah Mckay On a Monday morning, just over a year ago, investment firms across the EU found they were no longer allowed to trade on the Swiss stock exchange. It happened almost overnight — simply because Brussels refused to extend a regulatory “equivalence” deal with Switzerland, which gave each side free access to the...

Keystone / Walter Bieri Major Swiss bank Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $15.5 million (CHF14.6 million) to settle a dispute with shareholders in the United States, according to court filings on Friday. The plaintiffs, led by four pension funds, accused Credit Suisse of defrauding shareholders about its risk appetite and management before taking $1 billion of writedowns on souring debt. The bank had boasted at the time of “comprehensive” risk controls and “binding”...

© Yulan | Dreamstime.com In the seven days to 10 July 2020, the reported number of new SARS-CoV-2 infections recorded in Switzerland was 589, a similar number to the week before, when 615 new cases were recorded. Over the weeks prior to this there were 251 and 172 new cases, according to worldinfometer.com. Much of the recent rise in infections is due to clusters of infections found among people going to nightclubs and bars. Late last week Switzerland’s Covid-19...

In 1999, Switzerland signed a deal with the EU allowing free movement of people between Switzerland and the bloc. The deal came into force in 2002. This led to a rise in immigration into Switzerland, which in turn eventually led to rising rents. © Andreaciox | Dreamstime.com However, since 2014 there has been a marked slowdown in EU immigration into Switzerland. In addition, a lot of rental homes have been built. The overall supply of rental properties now exceeds...

The number unemployed in Switzerland at 30 June 2020, fell 5,709 in June to 159,289, according to the State Secretariat for the Economy (SECO). © Wutthichai Luemuang | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s unemployment rate fell from 3.4% to 3.2%. However, despite improving on May 2020, the number unemployed was 53,067 (+54.6%) higher than at the end of June 2019. Switzerland’s official unemployment figures however include only those registered as unemployed, a lower...

The Swiss travel and tourism sector has been hard hit by the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. German tour operator TUI is to close eight of its 62 branches in Switzerland with the loss of around 70 jobs, owing to the effects of the coronavirus crisis. “We are assuming we will organise around 70% fewer trips than originally planned this summer,” says TUI Switzerland’s managing director Philipp von Czapiewski...