Tag Archive: Business

Swiss banks defy Brexit to recruit in London

2017-08-05

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2017-08-05

At the same time as big global banks are considering alternatives to London in the wake of the Brexit vote, Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reports, financial institutions are also recruiting new staff in the City. Rather than in commercial banking, however, these employees specialise in private wealth management.

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Popularity of diesel becoming exhausted

2017-08-05

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2017-08-05

Last June in Munich, Greenpeace symbolically showcased a diesel engine in a coffin. After decades of rapid growth, the popularity of diesel vehicles in Switzerland is on the wane following scandals and concerns about environmental impact.

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Swiss Banks Paid Out €1 Billion In Negative Interest Rates In The First Half

2017-08-01

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2017-08-01

Investment Structure at the end of Q2 2017
Overnight, the Swiss National Bank disclosed the composition and breakdown of its FX reserves as of June 30. There were no notable changes, as the central bank kept most of its asset allocations unchanged from the previous quarter, with equities, government bonds and "other bonds", at 20%, 68% and 12% respectively. There were also no shifts in the currency composition as shown in the table below.

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Trade deal further unlocks EU market for Swiss exports

2017-08-01

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2017-08-01

Switzerland and the European Union today wrapped up negotiations aimed at removing technical barriers to trade for a range of industrial goods. The deal may be a sign that relations are improving between Bern and Brussels.

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Global Stocks Rise On “Growth Optimism”, Ignore Political Turmoil; Dollar, Oil Creep Higher

2017-07-31

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2017-07-31

Stoxx Europe, Aug 2016 - 2017
S&P futures rose 0.1% on the last trading day of the month, trailing European and Asian markets boosted by China’s July Mfg. PMI, which despite declining from from 51.7 to 51.4, and missing expecations  of 51.5, saw the construction index rise to its highest level since December 13, sending Chinese iron ore futures surging and … Continue reading »

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Long Gotthard tailbacks for holiday weekend

2017-07-30

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2017-07-30

Holiday-weekend traffic has been causing long tailbacks at both ends of the Gotthard tunnel in central Switzerland. Reports of two-hour jams on Saturday may re-surface debates about traffic in the region. Southbound traffic waits to enter the Gotthard tunnel.(Keystone) As Swiss National Day approaches on 1 August, this weekend saw large movements of traffic crossing the country, with the...

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Missing glass eye? Contact Swiss railways

2017-07-29

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2017-07-29

A glass eye, wedding dress and fakir costume were among the 127,000 items passengers left behind on Swiss trains last year. Wheelchairs, prostheses and dentures counted among the unusual objects on the list, which was dominated by clothes and mobile phones.

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Swiss students reveal prototype for experimental hyperloop

2017-07-29

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2017-07-29

A pod built by students at Zurich’s Federal Institute of technology (ETHZ) will be competing to be the fastest to navigate the Hyperloop experimental high-speed transportation system in California. The Swiss pod, named Escher after the 19th century Swiss entrepreneur Alfred Escher, was unveiled at ETHZ at a ceremony on Thursday.

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Swiss franc weakens to symbolic low

2017-07-28

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2017-07-28

The Swiss franc has fallen to its lowest point since the January 2015 unpegging of the currency from the euro. The symbolic moment will be a huge relief to Swiss exporters and the tourism industry. As of Thursday morning, the franc was trading at 1.12 to the euro, a drop of 1.8 percent since Monday. It is the weakest level reached since the decision by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to remove the cap two-and-a-half years ago.

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Strong franc forces Swiss paper mill to close

2017-07-28

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2017-07-28

The closure of a paper factory in canton Bern will leave only one such plant supplying the newspaper and magazine industry in Switzerland from next year. The 125-year-old Utzenstorf factory will close its doors at the end of 2017, management announced on Tuesday.

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When Do We Know These Are Delusional Markets

2017-07-27

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2017-07-27

Markets Cycle
Signs of complacency and disconnect from fundamentals abound. So to sanity check, it may still be helpful to periodically remind ourselves of a few recent ones. In no particular order. The Swiss National Bank bought $ 100bn between US and European stocks. It now owns 26 million Microsoft shares (read).

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Zurich airport reports record passenger numbers

2017-07-27

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2017-07-27

Switzerland’s main airport of Zurich is going from strength to strength, setting a new daily record. On Sunday about 107,000 passengers travelled through the airport in just one day, a spokeswoman said. The figure compares with the average daily figure of 30,000 passengers. Travellers flying to a destination in the United States have been asked to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure, as separate security checks for...

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Stories making the Sunday papers

2017-07-26

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2017-07-26

Employee work hours, more storm damage in Switzerland and electricity companies’ fears of cyber attacks are among the main headlines in the Sunday papers. Not all younger employees in Switzerland prefer the freedom of more flexible work hours as companies try to adapt quickly to an increasingly digital world, reports the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

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Adult habits in line with global average

2017-07-25

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2017-07-25

In Switzerland, 21% of the adult population on average are daily smokers, according to a report from the World Health Organisation. That is firmly in line with average rates of current smoking among adults globally, which have declined to 21% in 2015 down from 24% in 2007.

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Official: Internal review clears Swiss arms shipments

2017-07-23

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2017-07-23

The head of a Swiss federal office says its handling of export permits for arms manufacturers is improving in the wake of a criminal probe into past shipments. An internal review cleared a federal employee of wrongdoing after prosecutors questioned the handling of a Bernese arms manufacturer’s requests to ship weapons to Kazakhstan in 2008 and to New Zealand in 2009, said Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, director of the State Secretariat for...

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Pharma remains king of Swiss exports

2017-07-23

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2017-07-23

Swiss watch
Pharmaceutical and chemical goods pushed Swiss exports to record highs in the first half of this year. The value of goods sold abroad peaked at CHF109.6 billion ($105 billion) in the first six months of 2017 - a 4.4% rise on the previous year. Swiss exports were further boosted by resurgence in demand from China that saw a 20% increase in value of goods sold.

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Swiss banker admits to helping Americans cheat taxes

2017-07-22

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2017-07-22

Credit Suisse
A former Credit Suisse banker pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of aiding Americans in hiding millions of dollars from US tax authorities. Susanne Rüegg-Meier, who worked in the Zurich office of Credit Suisse between 2002 and 2011, entered the guilty plea while on trial in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, for conspiring to defraud the United States, said the US Justice Department in a statement.external link.

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Court sentence in multimillion fraud scheme

2017-07-21

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2017-07-21

Swiss authorities
A massive money laundering case unfolded on Tuesday in a Swiss cantonal court where an Englishman, his wife and a financial adviser were found guilty in an elaborate multimillion-franc scheme. The district courtexternal link in the canton of Vaud sentenced the unidentified Englishman to a year in prison on charges of laundering nearly CHF7 million ($7.34 million), the Swiss News Agency reported.

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Fighting inflation with FX, a real traders market

2017-07-20

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2017-07-20

Gain Change, Currencies Popularity, Reward: Risk Ratios, Average Holding Time
The much anticipated document (press release and link to full document) released by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico and contained the list of negotiating objectives for talks that are expected to begin in one month.

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Where there’s smoke, there’s political fire

2017-07-19

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2017-07-19

A poster in a Swiss shop window advertises the sale of legal cannabis. The rising popularity of marijuana that doesn’t make you high – a product known as “cannabis light” or “CBD cannabis” – is causing a headache for Swiss politicians. It is sold in many Swiss shops and generates millions of Swiss francs in sales.

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