Tag Archives: Business

Swiss hotel websites should be allowed to undercut prices offered by online booking platforms according to parliament (Keystone) A majority of parliament wants to restrict online reservation platforms in a bid to protect the Swiss hotel sector. The House of Representatives on Monday overwhelmingly approved a proposal and followed the Senate demanding that Swiss hotels will be allowed to offer lower prices for their...

Big Swiss banks should make it easier for Swiss people living abroad to maintain a bank account, finds the Senate. Senators voted 23 to 14 on Tuesday in favour of a motion to make the five largest Swiss banks provide accounts under reasonable conditions. Six senators abstained from the vote, which came during the autumn parliamentary session in Bern. Currently, Swiss nationals living abroad are subject to stricter...

Accurately measuring the scope of global wealth inequality is a notoriously difficult undertaking – a fact that was brought to light last year when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the Panama Papers, exposing clients of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. As the papers revealed, Mossack Fonseca, which is only the world’s fourth-largest provider of offshore financial services, boasted...

The Swiss financial regulator is investigating multiple cases of suspected cryptocurrency fraud The Swiss financial regulator has closed down three companies linked to a fake cryptocurrency E-Coin amid fears that investors may have been conned out of millions of francs. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) said the probe is one of 12 it is conducting into cryptocurrencies. Finma has seized or blocked...

This week attention will fall on US FOMC rate decision, BoJ policy rate announcement, German and NZ elections. Economic data releases include PMI in the Euro area, retail sales in the UK and existing home sales in US. In Emerging Markets, there are monetary policy meetings in South Africa, Indonesia, Hungary, Taiwan and Philippines. BofA highlights the week's key global events: Central bank meetings: US FOMC and BoJ The Fed will make policy announcement on Wednesday. Balance sheet...

In its latest annual summary published at the end of June, the IIF found that total nominal global debt had risen to a new all time high of $217 trillion, or 327% of global GDP... ... largely as a result of an unprecedented increase in emerging market leverage. While the continued growth in debt in zero interest rate world is hardly surprising, what was notable is that debt within the developed world appeared to have peaked, if not declined modestly in the latest 5 year period. However,...

Belair is due to stop operations at the end of October (archive picture) (Keystone) - Click to enlarge A potential buyer has been found for Belair, the Swiss subsidiary of insolvent airline Air Berlin, according to Swiss media reports which cite an internal communication to Belair employees. Belair management wrote that there was at least one offer for the airline, according to the az Nordwestschweiz...

Swiss Life denies it has flouted US regulations - Click to enlarge Insurance firm Swiss Life has announced that it has been approached by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding its cross-border business with US clients. After going after Swiss banks with a vengeance for abetting tax evasion, it appears that it is now the turn of the Swiss insurance industry to attract unfavourable attention from the DOJ. Products...

Three years after we first identified the former head of UBS's gold desk in Zurich as someone directly implicated in the rigging of precious metals prices, Bloomberg reports that Andre Flotron, a Swiss resident, was arrested while visiting the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter. Having been "on leave" since 2014, it appears Andre's hope that he was gone but "keen to return in due time" are now up in smoke.   As Bloomberg reports, Flotron was...

Some 52 million passengers took off, landed or transited via Swiss airports last year. But while the number of passengers continues to soar, there are fewer planes in operation than in 2000. There are now fewer planes in circulation, but they have much bigger capacities, like this Airbus A380 taking off from Zurich Airport (Keystone) - Click to enlarge In 2016, Switzerland’s national airports in Zurich, Geneva...