Tag Archives: Swiss Markets and News

© Cecilia Lim | Dreamstime - Click to enlarge This week, Switzerland moved closer to requiring minimum percentages of women on company boards and management teams. A parliamentary commission came out in support of the Federal Council’s plan to require greater gender balance in the boardrooms of Switzerland’s large listed companies. A commission majority (14 versus 11) would like to see a minimum of 30% of board members...

Most internet users in Switzerland search the web for information about products, notably to buy online and book holidays (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Internet users in Switzerland rate their computer skills as good, but trust in online news content has dropped significantly, according to a survey by the University of Zurich. An overwhelming majority (83%) of users stated they can easily distinguish...

© Pogonici | Dreamstime - Click to enlarge At the end of September the Swiss government announced an average nationwide health premium rise of 4% in 2018. This government calculation is rather narrow. It only looks at the price of standard compulsory insurance, including accident cover, for an adult with a CHF 300 deductible. Price comparison site bonus.ch calculates that this policy configuration only applies to 18.3%...

The ABB plant in Meyrin, Geneva. (Keystone) The ABB electronics group announced on Monday the offshoring of up to 150 positions from its Geneva production centre, while Roche is cutting 235 people in canton Aargau. Employees and trade unions reacted angrily. Rumoured to be in the works for some weeks, the Zurich-headquartered ABB group announced on Monday that it would be relocating positions from its Geneva plant to a...

Politicians, business directors and companies in Switzerland are among those connected to the so-called Paradise Papers, a massive trove of leaked offshore investment documents. There is currently no evidence of any legal wrongdoing. One of the most interesting names for the Swiss authorities is convicted criminal Jean-Claude Bastos, the Swiss-Angolan founder and CEO of Quantum Global Group, an international investment...

A book festival in Lausanne has cancelled an invitation to Marsault, a controversial French comic book artist, after the organisers said they received threats from activists. The organisers of the Lausan’noir crime thriller book festivalexternal link say they will not be welcoming the French comic book artist Marsault to their event, which takes place in the Swiss city from October 27-29. “The conditions were not met...

© Blondsteve | Dreamstime As next year’s health premium bills find their way into Swiss mail or email boxes, the reality of another round of price increases starts to bite. Earlier this week, Switzerland’s Federal Council unveiled 38 measures that will be considered as part of a plan to tackle Switzerland’s rising health costs. A final plan will be presented next spring, according to 20 Minutes. A number of measures,...

Ernesto Bertarelli is one of Switzerland's 35 billionaires (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The total wealth of the world’s 1,542 billionaires – including 35 in Switzerland – grew 17% to $6 trillion (CHF5.93 trillion) last year, led by a surge in Asia’s emerging billionaire class and growth in the materials, industrials, financial and technology sectors. The wealth of Switzerland’s billionaires grew by a mere...

A Swiss man (centre, between his lawyers) has confessed to spying on the tax authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge A Swiss man accused of spying on the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) tax authority has confessed and named names. In a Frankfurt court on Thursday, the 54-year-old man, identified only as Daniel M., explained via his defence team...

Silver generation: the Swiss pension system remains strong, despite some issues. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The Swiss pension system has ranked eighth in an annual international study looking at the sustainability and efficiency of retirement schemes. This represents a drop of four places in the past two years, largely driven by sustainability issues. The Global Pension Indexexternal link, published by...