Tag Archives: Latest News

This morning the UK pound slumped as one of the world’s oldest central banks pressed hard on the panic button. The Bank of England was seen to be shouting ‘Pivot! Pivot! Pivaat!’ as they announced they would temporarily suspend their programme to sell gilts and will instead buy long-dated bonds. In a statement, the bank said that they would be embarking on a “temporary and targeted” bond buying operation. Although we expect it to be about as temporary and as...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent worries about energy sources make the economic outlook uncertain. (c) Copyright 2022, Dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte Vorbehalten Swiss economic growth forecasts for 2022 and 2023 have been revised significantly downwards, amid uncertainty over energy supply and inflation. A government expert group has downgraded its expectations for GDP growth to 2% in 2022, compared with the 2.6% it predicted in June. For 2023, its...

The Swiss competition commission (COMCO) has opened an investigation into suspected unlawful use of a patent to reduce competitive pressure by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The probe, which is in collaboration with the European Commission, is looking into whether the company used unlawful means to ward off competition for its own dermatological treatments. COMCO conducted an early morning raid at the company’s Basel headquarters on September 13 in connection...

Ermotti also called into question the need for 24 cantonal banks. Keystone / Elia Bianchi Having two big players like UBS and Credit Suisse provides no “compelling” economic benefit for Switzerland, Sergio Ermotti has told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper. “The strength of the country’s financial centre is its diversification, which is much more important than the number of big banks,” the former UBS CEO said in an interview published on Sunday. In the last ten years,...

Keystone / Jens Buettner The Swiss company behind the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has received a four-month extension to try to repay its debts. The Zug cantonal court in Switzerland, where Nord Stream 2 AG is headquartered, granted the company a second extension, according to an entry in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce published on Thursday. The firm has until January 10, 2023 to turn things around and avoid bankruptcy proceedings. In May, the court...

“You cannot say we have passed the zenith and now it is certainly heading lower,” Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan told a Finanz and Wirtschaft financial conference on Thursday. © Keystone / Anthony Anex The president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Thomas Jordan, says the inflation outlook is more uncertain than normal and it is premature to say prices have peaked. “You cannot say we have passed the zenith and now it is certainly heading lower,”...

Car sharing firm Mobility is providing 50 Honda electric cars for this innovative project. © Keystone / Christian Beutler An innovative pilot project testing the potential of electric cars to stabilise the power grid has been launched in Switzerland. For one year, the power of 50 electric vehicles will be fed back into the grid from their batteries when they are not running, car-sharing company Mobility which leads the project said on Tuesday. The “V2X Switzerland”...

The company has faced a string of scandals and mounting legal costs. It is currently undergoing what it calls a transition phase with a new CEO. © Keystone / Melanie Duchene Embattled Swiss bank Credit Suisse is planning to cut around 10% of its workforce as part of a major cost cutting drive, according to several media reports. Reuters reported on Thursday that someone with direct knowledge of the matter indicated that 5,000 positions are expected to be slashed,...

Solar energy systems supplied 6.5% of the electricity required in Switzerland in the first half of 2022 © Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott Fears of an electricity shortage in Switzerland appear to have had a positive effect on the expansion of solar energy. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) expects the market to grow by around 50% in 2022. New photovoltaic construction in Switzerland rose by 43% to 683 megawatts in 2021, revealed SFOE statistics on solar...

Refined gold bars have their origins monitored, but purchase of raw materials for smelting can slip through the net. Keystone / Martin Ruetschi Swiss legislation is lagging behind in the fight against money laundering, and “seldom anticipates developments at international level”, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) has warned. SFAO audits have “revealed weaknesses and, hence, financial and reputational risks for the Swiss authorities,” the office said in a report...