Category Archive: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

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Hacking as a tool for highlighting grievances

2022-04-26

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Hacker Tillie Kottmann exposes security holes in computer systems and has been charged in the United States for making them public. For Kottmann, tracking down digital vulnerabilities provides a dose of euphoria and adrenaline. The hacker wants to shine a light on data of public interest. This video portrait is part of the “Digital offensive” series by Swiss public television SRF. It looks at the work of five young people trying to make a...

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Geldcast update: calls for a more transparent Swiss National Bank

2022-04-26

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2022-04-26

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is very opaque by international standards. That has to change, says Yvan Lengwiler, professor of economics at the University of Basel. He explains his proposals in the latest Geldcast update.

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Swiss technology foils Russian censorship

2022-04-24

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2022-04-24

The Swiss software Kiwix enables the user to copy entire websites so they can be accessible offline. Now that Wikipedia risks sanction in Russia because of its content on the Ukraine war, downloads of the free online encyclopaedia using Kiwix are off the charts. 

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Energy prices: government considers measures to help households

2022-04-23

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2022-04-23

The Swiss government has set up a working group to examine whether measures are needed to relieve the burden on households caused by rising energy prices.

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Swiss trade unions sound alarm about rising cost of living

2022-04-22

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2022-04-22

Trade unions say middle- and lower-income workers in Switzerland are facing a “shock” in 2022, with wages unable to offset rising inflation and health insurance costs.

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Easter march through Bern addresses war in Ukraine

2022-04-21

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2022-04-21

The traditional Easter march has taken place in the Swiss capital, Bern. This year the “Walk for Peace” focused on issues including the climate and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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Impact of Swiss finance sector on country’s GDP waning

2022-04-21

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2022-04-21

The contribution of Switzerland’s finance industry to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased over the past ten years.

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Swiss to decide individually on Russian commodity deals

2022-04-20

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2022-04-20

Switzerland will decide case by case whether to curtail traders' purchases from Russia's state-controlled companies under European Union sanctions. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) which is in charge sanctions confirmed the Swiss policy to follow in principle the EU measures, which aim to limit commodity deals to those deemed "strictly necessary" from mid-May.

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Saying no to a tax on streaming companies in Switzerland

2022-04-19

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Should streaming services like Netflix be forced to support filmmakers in the countries where they operate? Under the the so-called “Lex Netflix” law, they will be required to invest 4% of their Swiss turnover in local productions.

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Crypto Nation Switzerland tackles workforce shortages

2022-04-19

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2022-04-19

The rapidly expanding Swiss blockchain industry is facing growing pains: a limited supply of qualified workers to fill the expanding number of job vacancies. Universities are stepping up to meet the challenge by designing new courses around blockchain and decentralised finance.

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Swiss consumed 4.3 percent more electricity in 2021

2022-04-18

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2022-04-18

The Alpine nation consumed 2.4 million kilowatt hours (kWh) more electricity in 2021, equivalent to the annual consumption of 479,800 households. “In addition to the pandemic-related 'compensatory effects' in the second quarter, general economic development, the weather and population development increased consumption in 2021,” said the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) on Thursday.

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Students demand a bitcoin education

2022-04-18

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2022-04-18

A few years ago, during a bitcoin price rally, a colleague relayed a story about her husband attending a university lecture. He noticed several students glued to their smartphones. Peering over a few shoulders he saw they were more focused on crypto profits than the lecture.

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Are the days of morally neutral corporate decision-making over?

2022-04-17

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2022-04-17

New rules of the game have consequences be they sanctions, laws, court rulings or even public opinion. The stakes have never been as high for multinationals when it comes to doing the right thing.  

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Swiss bail-out plan aims to prevent electricity crunch

2022-04-16

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2022-04-16

The government has decided to prepare a bail-out plan for Switzerland’s main electricity companies to prevent an energy shortage.

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No business can be right in a war that’s wrong

2022-04-14

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2022-04-14

Western companies should end their business relations with Russia. It is their moral duty to contribute to peace-making by their actions, says a group of business ethicists in Switzerland and Austria.

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Swiss property market faces bleak future despite record values

2022-04-14

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2022-04-14

The Covid-19 pandemic has failed to rattle the Swiss property market. Prices for apartment buildings have hit a record high. But now the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates threaten to turn the tide.

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Upmarket Swiss hotel welcomes Ukrainian refugees

2022-04-13

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The four-star SeePark Hotel in the lakeside town of Murten in western Switzerland has opened its doors to refugees from the war in Ukraine. They get to stay for free in rooms that would normally cost more than CHF200 ($214) a night. The hotel is owned by a limited company of ethnic Russians based in western Europe. The hotel administrator, Ukrainian-born Lyudmyla Rigert, persuaded the director to help her compatriots fleeing the war. So far, 200...

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Former top Swiss banker convicted for fraud

2022-04-13

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2022-04-13

A Swiss court has sentenced former Raiffeisen bank chief Pierin Vincenz to almost four years in prison for fraud, forgery of documents and criminal mismanagement. Judges on Wednesday handed down a jail sentence of 43 months as well as a suspended fine of CHF840,000 ($899,858). Vincenz was also ordered to refund CHF236,000.

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Switzerland misses greenhouse gas reduction target

2022-04-12

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2022-04-12

Switzerland has narrowly missed its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 despite coronavirus lockdowns and an unusually warm winter.

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New Swiss bank pitches itself as digital, but not robotic

2022-04-09

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2022-04-09

Switzerland’s shrinking banking universe has been bolstered by a new wealth management entrant, Alpian, which is aiming for the sweet spot between digital and human-centric services. Alpian has just secured a Swiss banking license along with a CHF19 million ($20.5 million) capital boost from the Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo.

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