Tag Archives: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

The Swiss watch industry has retained staff in 2021 Keystone / Martin Ruetschi The annual census of the Swiss watch industry labour force found that partial unemployment helped the industry weather the pandemic over the last year. The number of employees in the industry remained stable in 2021 while the share of high skilled staff increased. There are just under 60,000 people working in the watchmaking industry in Switzerland, which is less than a 1% decrease from...

Stöckli is one of Switzerland’s oldest ski manufacturers. swissinfo.ch / Dominique Soguel-dit-Picard Shortages of raw materials and logistics bottlenecks have made 2021 a tough year for Swiss manufacturers, and contributed to a downgrade in the government’s GDP growth forecast for the economy next year. Swissinfo.ch’s India specialist covers a wide range of issues from bilateral relations to Bollywood. He also knows a thing or two about Swiss watchmaking and is...

Switzerland’s second largest bank is now bracing for several class-action lawsuits from clients, experts say. Keystone/Urs Flüeler The Credit Suisse bank has fired the managers overseeing a multi-billion-dollar fund strategy linked to the now-defunct Greensill Capital. Switzerland’s second largest bank was forced to freeze and wind down a $10 billion (CHF9.2 billion) fund range amid huge financial losses. The Zurich-based bank dismissed former head of asset...

Central banks have come to the fore in recent years by printing money to keep economies afloat. Keystone / Lm Otero Every other month, the world’s most influential central bank governors gather in Basel to swap notes, reinforce personal ties and untangle the technical details of keeping money flowing around the world. Since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, central banks have emerged from dull obscurity to print trillions in multiple currencies. The pandemic has...

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the hacking and insider trading scheme made a total of $82 million from 2018 through 2020. Keystone / Anonymous The Russian businessman extradited from Switzerland to the United States and four other Russians have been charged with carrying out a $82-million (CHF75 million) insider trading scheme using data stolen during hacks of US computer networks. US federal prosecutors in Boston announcedExternal link on...

The World Economic Forum has been forced to roll up its plans once again. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott The Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted plans to hold the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) main annual meeting in Davos for a second year in a row. On Monday, WEF said it would defer the gathering of influential global business and political heads from the planned date in January to an undefined time in early summer. WEF organisers said the spread of the Omicron...

UBS maintains that the evidence presented in court was insufficient to show guilt. Keystone / Sebastian Gollnow Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, says it will once again appeal a fine handed out by a French court for tax evasion offences. On December 13, a Paris appeal court confirmed a previous ruling that UBS was criminally guilty of assisting French tax evaders but reduced the penalty from €4.5 billion (CHF4.7 billion) to €1.8 billionExternal link. The bank, which...

Rival UBS’s wealth business has left Credit Suisse trailing in the past couple of years. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza Credit Suisse has hired the former chief executive of Australian finance group AMP to run its revamped wealth management division, as the Swiss lender tries to win market share from its domestic rival UBS. Francesco De Ferrari, who worked for Credit Suisse between 2002 and 2018, left AMP in June after a tough two years running the Australian wealth...

Earlier this year, the bank, which was set up in 1965, announced it is ceasing private banking. Headquartered in Zurich, the bank has had subsidiaries in Geneva, Hongkong and Singapore as well as representations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and London. © Keystone/Ennio Leanza A Swiss court has found the Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank guilty of money-laundering offences. The Federal Criminal CourtExternal link on Wednesday ordered the Abu Dhabi-owned bankExternal link to pay...

The official retirement age for women will be put at 65 in line with that of men in Switzerland under the reform approved by parliament but opposed by trade unions and the political left. Keystone/Gaetan Bally Parliament has approved a major reform of the Swiss pension system, including a controversial rise in the retirement age for women. The overhaul also foresees financial compensation – staggered over nine years for women directly affected by the change – as well...