Tag Archive: Business

How Credit Suisse rolled the dice on risk management — and lost

2021-04-20

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2021-04-20

Five months before Greensill Capital’s collapse, Credit Suisse invited a special guest to present to its top ranks in Asia. The visitor was hailed as the sort of bold entrepreneur the bank wanted to do business with: Lex Greensill. “The tone was this is the exact kind of client the bank wants, tell the MDs to go out and find more guys like Lex,” said one senior manager who watched the November video conference.

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Swiss digital asset trading network expands

2021-04-19

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2021-04-19

A blockchain-inspired trading infrastructure, which links banks, companies and investors to cryptocurrencies and a new breed of digital securities, is nearing fruition in Switzerland.

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Restaurants to re-open despite high Covid infection rate 

2021-04-15

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2021-04-15

The Swiss government has decided to allow outdoor tables in restaurants and bars again as of next Monday, following a four-month temporary closure. As part of its anti-Covid strategy, cultural and sports events will be open to the public under certain conditions, a government statement said. 

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Swiss banks queuing up to jump on blockchain train

2021-04-13

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2021-04-13

Digital bank Swissquote is expanding its crypto business by delving into the new world of blockchain-compliant digital assets. It appears that they are not alone: several high street banks also plan to launch “tokenization” services.

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Study shows benefits of physical and cognitive play in dementia patients

2021-04-12

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2021-04-12

Elderly participants who trained regularly on a fitness device developed by a Swiss company showed improvements in cognitive skills, such as attention, concentration, memory and orientation. The study, carried out by an international team in two Belgian care homes, relied on a fitness game, known as “Exergame”, developed by a spin-off of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

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Lonza to create 1,200 new jobs at vaccine-production site

2021-04-12

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2021-04-12

The Swiss pharmaceutical company is recruiting workers to join its new plant in southern Switzerland, where three production lines have been set up to manufacture an active ingredient of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.

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All electric pledge by Swiss car-sharing firm

2021-04-08

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2021-04-08

Car-sharing company Mobility says it will electrify its entire fleet of 3,000 vehicles and build a network of e-charging stations by 2030.

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Nestlé attacks food benefits of Brazilian workers during the pandemic

2021-04-03

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2021-04-03

The Swiss multinational is celebrating 100 years in Brazil but its poorest workers face food voucher cuts amid rising food prices caused by the pandemic. After a century of doing business in Brazil – Nestlé’s fifth largest market with CHF2.79 billion ($2.94 billion) in sales in 2020 – the Swiss food manufacturer faces the discontent of trade unions in the South American country. 

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The Swiss textile machinery industry has a China dilemma

2021-03-31

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2021-03-31

Amid allegations of forced labour involving Uyghur and other minorities in the garment supply chain, the Swiss textile machinery sector faces thorny questions about its ties to and reliance on China. In 2014, the same year the Swiss-China free trade deal went into force, a group of industry colleagues including a representative of the Swiss firm Uster Technologies visitedExternal link cotton gins and spinning mills in Xinjiang, Western China.

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Electric cars are on the way, but is Switzerland ready?

2021-03-30

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2021-03-30

Last year saw a surge in new electric vehicle (EV) sales worldwide and Switzerland was no exception. But the experience of frontrunner countries like Norway shows that some things will have to change if the Swiss electric car revolution is to keep pace in the years ahead and reduce carbon emissions.

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Credit Suisse and Nomura warn of losses after Archegos-linked sell-off

2021-03-30

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2021-03-30

Credit Suisse and Nomura have warned of large losses after a fire sale of about $20bn of Chinese and US stocks, as their client Archegos Capital Management was forced into a huge unwinding of assets.

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Credit Suisse warns of ‘highly significant’ loss linked to hedge fund

2021-03-29

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2021-03-29

The Swiss bank Credit Suisse says it may face a “highly significant” loss in the first quarter due to an unnamed American hedge fund client defaulting on margin calls. In a statement issued on Monday, the bank said: “While at this time it is premature to quantify the exact size of the loss resulting from this exit, it could be highly significant and material to our first quarter results”.

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Swiss ‘too big to fail’ banks pose little risk to the economy

2021-03-21

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2021-03-21

Three of Switzerland’s “too big to fail” banks no longer threaten to cause a seismic shift in the economy should they collapse, says the financial regulator. Zurich Cantonal Bank, PostFinance and the Raiffeisen banking group are now deemed to have put into place credible plans for an orderly bankruptcy.

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Switzerland is wrangling over implementation of tougher tobacco laws

2021-03-20

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2021-03-20

The Swiss parliament is currently debating tightening restrictions on advertising of tobacco products. This comes after a people’s initiative calls for a radical advertising ban to protect children.

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How the Swiss central bank could control the cost of pandemic debt

2021-03-18

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2021-03-18

The cost of paying off spiralling national debt in the United States and Switzerland is rising as interest rates increase. This makes the financing of pandemic expenditure more expensive. That's not a problem in Japan where the central bank is holding interest rates in check. Would the Japanese recipe also be something for Switzerland?

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Bitcoin Suisse bank license bid hits regulatory roadblock

2021-03-18

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2021-03-18

Cryptocurrency firm Bitcoin Suisse has withdrawn its application for a banking license, in part because it failed to meet the anti-money laundering requirements of the Swiss financial regulator.

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More parcels, fewer letters: pandemic dents Swiss Post finances

2021-03-12

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2021-03-12

The Covid-19 pandemic cost the state-owned Swiss postal service CHF139 million ($150 million) last year, which was largely responsible for driving down profits by 30%. Swiss Post delivered a record 182.7 million parcels in 2020, up nearly a quarter in volume from the previous year.

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Swiss government expects fast economic recovery in 2021

2021-03-11

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2021-03-11

After a weak start to the year, Switzerland’s economy should recover rapidly from a heavy coronavirus-driven slump to grow by 3% in 2021, the government said on Thursday. Gross domestic product will fall “significantly” in the first quarter of this year, after Covid-19 restrictions last December, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said in a statement.

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Swiss government wants to keep control of weapons exports

2021-03-07

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2021-03-07

The Swiss government has rejected calls to allow voters and cantons to set conditions for weapons exports. A people’s initiative collected enough signatures in 2019 to force a nationwide vote on the issue.

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Switzerland gears up to place robots in classrooms

2021-03-02

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2021-03-02

Covid-19 has accelerated the transition to online teaching, raising questions about the role of robots in classrooms. Switzerland is rolling out its own robot learning programs, but it’s still a long way off before they will replace teachers.

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