Tag Archives: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

The bank is situated at Zurich’s prestigious Bahnhofstrasse. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Quintet Private Bank says it is closing its Swiss arm just 16 months after opening. The Qatari-owned private bank took over Bank am Bellevue last year. The Luxembourg-based private bank is closing its Swiss business, which employs 87 people, according to a statement on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the closure will happen via a wind-down or sale. The private bank, which opened in...

Checking a Covid certificate in a Lausanne café in September Keystone / Laurent Gillieron While most Swiss hotels and restaurants are critical of the need to show a Covid certificate, overall small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) do not perceive it as a disadvantage. A survey of 201 SMEs in German-speaking Switzerland found that 58% of managers in the hotel and catering industry described the consequences of the certificate as negative to very negative. Since...

GESDA’s radar anticipates that in five years advances in artificial intelligence could uncover patterns in brain data that offer new insights into consciousness. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi A Geneva-based foundation has created a tool mapping out major scientific breakthroughs that could help decision makers and civil society prepare for their impact. The digital tool offers an overview of 216 future scientific breakthroughs expected over the next 25 years. Nearly...

In September the city of Lausanne introduced a 30km/h speed limit on 122 streets between 10pm-6am to reduce noise pollution – a Swiss first. Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott Most Swiss residents would be in favour of a 30 kilometre (18 miles) per hour speed limit in urban areas, a survey has found. A poll by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BPA), published on TuesdayExternal link, found that 52% of respondents support a 30km/h speed limit on city streets. An...

Switzerland’s economic conditions make it attractive for financial flows from developing countries © Keystone / Gaetan Bally It’s an economist’s conundrum: global capital, instead of flowing from rich countries to poor countries, actually moves in the other direction. Each year hundreds of billions of dollars leave developing countries and land in the coffers of rich countries like Switzerland. An “unprecedented” $160 billion (CHF149 billion) – about the same amount...

V for Vaccine? One of many masked guests at Fantasy Basel on Saturday Keystone / Peter Klaunzer The three-day Fantasy Basel festival for fans of films, games, comics, cosplay and manga has re-opened its doors after a two-year break. Fantasy BaselExternal link, also known as the Swiss Comic Con, is one of the biggest events of its kind in Switzerland. Fans of pop culture are drawn to the exhibition halls in Basel, where many visitors dress up in flashy costumes...

An attractive target: a Swiss server. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Ransomware attacks by hackers continue to increase sharply, with some 2,700 Swiss firms falling victim over the past year, Beobachter magazine has reported. The figure for the period August 2020 to August 2021 was arrived at by American cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, Beobachter wrote on Wednesday. Measured against the 4,800 attacks over the past five years as a whole, this means a big uptick,...

Paradeplatz in Zurich, the Swiss financial heartland © Keystone / Gaetan Bally Switzerland is still number one in terms of wealth management internationally, despite the growth in new assets slowing in 2020, according to consulting firm Deloitte. The company found that overall, “the leading centres of international wealth management did surprisingly well during the Covid-19 pandemic”. Switzerland managed some $2.6 trillion (CHF2.4 trillion) in international assets in...

Getting impatient: it’s been a difficult few years for the show. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi For the third year running, the Geneva International Motor Show will not take place in 2022 due to ongoing health concerns as well as supply shortages in the automotive sector. The decision comes just a week after organisers had in fact given the all-clear for the 2022 edition to take place from February 19-27 next, following Covid-induced cancellations in 2020 and 2021. On...

Paper or digital? Changing times for the media in Switzerland... Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle - Click to enlarge A cross-party group has handed in signatures opposing a support package for the media passed by parliament in June. The “no to state media” group handed in some 113,000 signatures on Wednesday, more than double the amount needed to force a referendum under the Swiss direct democracy system. The opponents say the law is unconstitutional and a waste of...