Tag Archives: Latest News

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has temporarily suspended payments to a civil society platform on migration issues. Financial conflicts of interest and accusations of pro-migration bias are being investigated. On Thursday, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) confirmed that the Swiss Civil Society Platform on Migration and Developmentexternal link will not be receiving any further...

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has temporarily suspended payments to a civil society platform on migration issues. Financial conflicts of interest and accusations of pro-migration bias are being investigated. On Thursday, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) confirmed that the Swiss Civil Society Platform on Migration and Developmentexternal link will not be receiving any further...

The Hong Kong SFC accused UBS of substandard due diligence and failure to address red flags. (Keystone) Swiss bank UBS has been fined HK$375 million (CHF48 million) for irregularities involving three IPOs it had help list on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2009. Its licence to sponsor IPOs in the city was also suspended for one year. On Thursday, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced the measures...

At the end of 2018, 314,000 cross-border workers were working in Switzerland. The number of cross-border workers in Switzerland – except those from France – has dropped for the second consecutive quarter. This marks the second year-on-year decline by quarter in 20 years. According to numbers released by the Federal Statistical Officeexternal link on Thursday, the fourth quarter of 2018 saw 2,000 fewer people commuting...

Employees over the age of 50 are considered more expensive in the labour market, partly due to higher social security contributions. A people’s initiative, allowing workers over 50 to sue for age discrimination, will be launched soon, the NZZ am Sonntag reported on Sunday. According to Heidi Joos, the CEO of Avenir 50 plusexternal link, one of the organisations behind the project, this proposed constitutional provision...

People are in favour of taxing robots if unemployment increases as a result of technological advances. Only 34% of Swiss people believe their jobs are not at risk from automation and machine learning, according to a survey commissioned by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Almost half of the 2,092 people surveyed by the Link Institute for SBC felt that some of their daily tasks could be done by machines and...

Lodging and energy bills amounted to an average of 14.7% of household revenue. Swiss households spend an average of 29% on mandatory payments like taxes, social contributions and health insurance. Figures released by the Swiss Statistical Office on Monday reveal that, based on 2016 data, a Swiss household had an average income of CHF7,124 ($7,140), of which CHF2,910 was eaten up by unavoidable expenses. Of these...

Diplomats and finance ministry officials have the highest travel-related expenses, The expenses of Swiss civil servants added up to CHF 121.7 million ($122 million) last year, according to the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Counting the 34,800 full-time positions in the federal administration in 2016, that level of spending amounts to almost CHF3,500 per civil servant. The biggest spender is the defence ministry, with an...

ETH Zurich came in at 7th and 19th place in the QS and Shanghai rankings respectively this year. The Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) remains the best university in continental Europe, despite slipping one place to 11th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019. The listexternal link, which was released on Wednesday, scores 1,250 universities on five main criteria: teaching,...

Almost a quarter of Swiss dual nationals possess an Italian passport. Around 17% of Swiss residents over the age of 15 hold two passports. The canton of Geneva has the highest proportion of dual nationals at 45%. According to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday, the double nationality rate exceeds 20% in the cantons of Zurich, Basel City, Ticino, Vaud and Neuchâtel. The cantons with the...