Category Archive: 3) Swiss Markets and News

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Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager. We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in three principal markets, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, as well as certain other geographies. Investec’s strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group’s principal business areas.
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Switzerland clears Covid-19 vaccine for 12 to 15 year-olds

2021-06-09

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2021-06-09

On 4 June 2021, Swissmedic, Switzerland’s drug approval authority, announced it was extending authorisation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to 12-15 year olds. The vaccine, also known under the brand name Comirnaty®, has had temporary ordinary authorisation for use in Switzerland on people aged 16 or over since 19 December 2020.

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Swiss pesticide votes – pesticides, antibiotics, gut bacteria, hormones and disease

2021-06-08

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2021-06-08

As we move through time scientific research improves our understanding of the world. The resulting revelations often point to changes that could lead to progress. However, these changes are rarely painless. Shifting away from the use of antibiotics on livestock and the agricultural use of pesticides are not small adjustments.

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Global minimum tax deal bad for Switzerland, say experts

2021-06-07

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2021-06-07

The decision by the leading industrial nations (G7) to support a global minimum tax of 15% for large corporations is not good news for Switzerland, according to Swiss economists. Certain cantons in particular would come under pressure.

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Electricity watchdog sounds warning on Swiss energy security

2021-06-06

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2021-06-06

The Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom) has again voiced concern about Switzerland’s ability to secure sufficient power supplies in the coming years. While there is no immediate danger of shortfalls in the Alpine state, the electricity watchdog said on Thursday that more should be done to ensure domestic energy security in the mid to long term.

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Cobalt must be included in Swiss responsible business legislation

2021-06-05

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2021-06-05

Business and human rights experts argue that Switzerland should seize the opportunity to require responsible sourcing of cobalt, an in-demand mineral whose risks to human rights are often overlooked. The government is holding consultations on a new law to hold companies accountable for the adverse impact of their operations on people after the Responsible Business Initiative failed at the ballot box last year.

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Futuristic underground cargo project moves a step closer to reality

2021-06-04

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2021-06-04

Goods that are normally trucked on busy Swiss roads are a step closer to travelling underground on driverless vehicles after an ambitious cargo project got a first legislative go-ahead. The Cargo sous terrain (CST) project sounds like science fiction: a 500-kilometre network of tunnels to transport freight between Switzerland’s busiest cities.

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Covid: how is Switzerland going on vaccinations?

2021-06-03

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2021-06-03

On 23 December 2021, a 90-year old resident of Luzern, was the first person in Switzerland to be vaccinated against Covid-19. In the roughly 5 months since then, more than 3 million people in Switzerland have received at least one dose of vaccine, representing around 36% of the population.

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Swiss Aviation Sector Aims to go Carbon Neutral by 2050

2021-06-02

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2021-06-02

The Swiss aviation sector, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Zurich Airport, has pledged to slash CO2 emissions and make flying net zero by 2050.

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West Virginia Gov. Personally On The Hook For $700MM In Greensill Collapse

2021-06-01

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2021-06-01

The collapse of Greensill Capital has been the biggest financial scandal of the year so far, having set off a massive public corruption scandal in the UK that has deeply embarrassed the ruling Conservative Party due to the close involvement of former PM David Cameron, who was on the Greensill.

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How Swiss Asset Managers Opened their Doors to Lex Greensill

2021-06-01

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2021-06-01

In late 2014, David Solo lent A$12.2 million (CHF8.5 million) to a little-known supply-chain finance group with eye-catching claims. Greensill Capital, which was trying to muscle in on a corner of finance dominated for decades by banks, vowed to make “finance fairer” and declared that it would be “democratising capital”.

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Dishonest Partial Unemployment Claims Alarm Swiss Auditors

2021-05-31

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2021-05-31

The Swiss Federal Audit Office says it is worried by a surge in fraud cases linked to the short-time working system, a key pillar of the country’s economic response to Covid-19. The office’s director Michel Huissoud told public radio SRF on Monday he was “shocked by the number of complaints, mistakes, and abuses” recorded to date.

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Swiss Campaign Heats up ahead of an Emotional Vote on Pesticides

2021-05-30

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2021-05-30

Death threats, insults, posters vandalised or set on fire: the campaign for two initiatives against pesticides to be put to the vote on June 13 is extremely tense. This toxic climate highlights a deep malaise in the Swiss agricultural world.

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Covid: new cases down 28% in Switzerland this week

2021-05-30

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2021-05-30

This week, 5,670 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Switzerland, down 28% from the week before (7,843), continuing the downward trend of new numbers of recorded infections. The daily number of cases on a 7-day rolling average has more than halved (-58%) in 4 weeks falling from 1,924 to 810.

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Swiss prepare for EU chill after quitting market access talks

2021-05-29

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2021-05-29

In Brussels there was shock and anger. In Switzerland, quiet celebration and relief — but, for some, doubts about what exactly comes next. On Wednesday, Bern announced it was formally withdrawing from negotiations to codify future relations with the EU into a single overarching “framework agreement” — a back-and-forth exchange that has dominated an increasingly fraught relationship with Brussels since 2014.

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Covid: UK now on Swiss risk list

2021-05-28

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2021-05-28

On 27 May 2021, the UK was added Switzerland’s list of risk countries. This means that anyone arriving in Switzerland from the UK from 6pm on Thursday must quarantine upon arrival, with a few exceptions. The UK was added to the Federal Office of Public Health’s (FOPH) list of countries with a worrying variant, alongside Brazil, Canada, India, Nepal and South Africa.

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Switzerland and WHO launch global pathogen BioHub

2021-05-25

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2021-05-25

Switzerland and the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to launch the first WHO BioHub Facility. This will enhance the rapid sharing of viruses and other pathogens between laboratories and partners globally.

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“Everything Is On Fire”

2021-05-20

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2021-05-20

Authored by Egon von Greyerz via GoldSwitzerland.com,“Everything is on fire” – Heraclitus (535-475 BC)What Heraclitus meant was that the world is in a constant state of flux.But the big problem in the next few years is that the world will experience a fire of a magnitude never seen before in history.I have in many articles and interviews pointed out how predictable events are (and people).

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UBS International Pension Gap Index: Swiss pensions – an international comparison

2021-05-20

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2021-05-20

Pension schemes are as diverse as the cultures of the countries whose working population they insure. Nevertheless, they all aim to guarantee a certain level of income in retirement. The UBS International Pension Gap Index, first released in 2017, analyses the sustainability and adequacy of the pension promises across 24 jurisdictions.

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Public trust in Swiss banks soars amid pandemic 

2021-05-20

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2021-05-20

Swiss people’s trust in their country’s banks is at its highest in 20 years, boosted by Covid credits and a commitment to sustainability, according to a new survey. People from almost all political camps have a positive perception, with 75% describing their attitude towards Swiss banks as positive or very positive, found the survey conducted by gfs.bern for the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA).

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Eight Swiss in Bloomberg billionaire ‘rich list’ 

2021-05-19

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2021-05-19

In the latest version of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, eight Swiss or Swiss-resident names figure among the 500 richest people in the world. The richest of the Alpine-based billionaires is Geneva-based Ernesto Bertarelli, who according to his own self-description is a “Swiss entrepreneur active in the fields of business, finance, sport and philanthropy”.

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