Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. UBS Group AG beat analysts’ second-quarter profit estimates and said it’s on track to cut costs by 2.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) through 2017, with Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti struggling with a slump at the wealth management and securities-trading units. Net income slipped to 1.03 billion francs […]
Swiss stock market rally loses momentum
29 July 2016 – Swiss and global market roundup. Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss Market Index and global stock markets failed to extend last week’s rally after the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan left rates unchanged and gave mixed messages about the global economic outlook. Japanese shares received a short-term boost after […]
Fine for Swiss school absence overturned by judge
20 Minutes. Unauthorised school absence is against the law in the Swiss canton of Vaud, and parents can be fined if their children are absent without prior authorisation from school management. Article 54 of Vaud’s law on compulsory schooling requires all parents resident in the canton to enroll and send their children to a state or […]
Credit Suisse’s turnaround is working, but vulnerable
Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Just a month ago, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam and Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan risked, as one hedge fund manager put it, becoming the dead men walking of European banking as they struggled to shore up their firms’ profitability. Thursday’s results from Credit Suisse suggest Thiam may escape […]
Swiss post to accept cards from other banks, but there’s a catch
Tages Anzeiger. Anyone new to Switzerland may be surprised to find that the only way to pay in Swiss post offices is with cash, unless you have a Swiss Post card. The Tages Anzeiger reported that the company has started experimenting with debit card payments in two post offices. One in Zollikofen in the canton of […]
New ice rink in Geneva
Tribune de Genève. It might be the middle of summer, but an association representing those who use the baths in Pâquis, recently made a formal request for permission to build a temporary ice rink during Geneva’s winter months. If everything goes to plan, the facility could open this November. According to association coordinator, Philippe Constantin, […]
Swiss solar plane completes 43,000 km round-the-world flight
Early this morning, the solar powered plane, Solar Impulse II, piloted by Bertrand Piccard, landed in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, completing a full circuit of the globe. The aircraft’s 17-leg journey involved 23 days of flying, covering a distance of 43,041 kilometres. Piccard took off from Egypt and arrived in Abu Dhabi […]
Luc Hoffmann, co-founder of the World Wildlife Foundation dies
Born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1923, Luc Hoffmann, co-founder of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and grandson of one of the founders of Hoffmann-Laroche, now known as the pharmaceutical giant Roche, died at his home in southern France on 22 July 2016. Hoffmann co-founded WWF in 1961 and was the foundation’s first vice president until […]
How two dog bones cost a family 17 francs in Swiss customs charges
Tribune de Genève. A family from Geneva was recently hit with an unexpected bill at the Swiss customs post at Bardonnex according to Tribune de Genève. Returning from their holiday in Italy, the family was hit with a customs bill of around ten times the value of the bones they had bought for their dog. […]
What Switzerland must do in the face of terrorism
Tribune de Genève. After the terrorist attack in Nice, Geneva state councillor in charge of security, Pierre Maudet, is calling for better police training in the face of the danger posed by jihadists. He told the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag, that specialised antiterrorism training of police personnel is required so officers can neutralise terrorists immediately when […]
