Switzerland

Credit Suisse, one of the largest players in the $1.3tn market for leveraged loans, has issued an unusual defence of lending to highly-indebted companies even as investor concerns rise over the booming area of finance, the Financial Times reported. After investors expressed worries over sliding standards and the IMF singled the type of loan out as a potential source of financial instability, the Swiss investment bank’s asset management arm sent a confidential letter to clients in September attempting to assuage fears.

Credit Suisse Group AG plans to buy back about 5.9 billion francs ($6 billion) of debt issued after the financial crisis to the Qatar Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Olayan family to cut funding costs, Bloomberg News reported. The bank will redeem the contingent convertible bonds -- which automatically become equity when reserves fall below pre-set levels -- on Oct. 23, the first opportunity to do so, according to a statement from the bank on Tuesday.

A former Swiss banker has pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to helping launder $1.2 billion of money embezzled from Venezuela’s bankrupt state oil company in a scheme that involved close relatives of a Venezuelan official, The Wall Street Journal reported. People familiar with the case say that official is President Nicolás Maduro. Matthias Krull, a 44-years-old Panama-based former Swiss bank executive, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on Wednesday, the Justice Department said. As part of his plea, Mr.

Belair Airlines has declared insolvency as of Wednesday, August 15, after talks with a prospective investor collapsed, ch-aviation reported. Under the new ownership of German investment firm SBC, the former airberlin group unit had, earlier this year, planned to secure a new Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) from the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) in time to commence ACMI and charter flights during the current summer season.

There’ll likely be no cake to celebrate the 10th birthday this month of Irish-Swiss baker Aryzta. It is probably looking to raise some dough. In the week following July 31st, the end of its financial year, about €200 million was wiped off its value, The Irish Times reported. Its shares, mainly traded in Zurich, plummeted by 23 per cent to 11.12 francs (€9.63). By the close of business on Thursday, it was worth less than €840 million against €1.1 billion nine days earlier. That’s roughly a quarter of what it was worth just five months ago.

Swiss battery manufacturer and energy storage company Leclanché has negotiated a debt restructuring with its shareholders and, in a press release issued this morning, warned further measures may be required to shore up its balance sheet, pv magazine reported. The 109-year company announced its major shareholder FEFAM – a coalition of four investment funds – has purchased an unspecified amount of debt that was due on June 30 and postponed its maturity date for two years, until March 31, 2020.

Credit Suisse will get $385 million from its bankruptcy claim against Lehman Brothers Holdings, the Swiss bank said on Wednesday, less than the $1.2 billion it sought from the failed U.S. investment bank for terminated derivatives transactions, Reuters reported. The deal, which still must be approved by a U.S. court, also means the Swiss bank’s Strategic Resolution Unit (SRU) will take a roughly $70 million impact in the case dating to 2009, Credit Suisse said.

This Sunday Swiss voters will decide whether to try what may be the boldest financial experiment ever contemplated — dismantling their orthodox banking system and building a new one based on so-called sovereign money, or Vollgeld. The proposal is probably far too radical to have much chance of success, a Bloomberg View reported. Yet that’s a pity. The idea of sovereign money isn’t crazy. It has a long and distinguished academic pedigree and, as a practical matter, there’s a lot to recommend it. Switzerland would do the world a favor by giving the plan a try.

Credit Suisse AG is closing in on an agreement to settle a $1.2 billion derivatives demand against bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., reducing the claim to $385 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The settlement would end a 10-year fight over costs the Swiss lender said it incurred to replace tens of thousands of derivatives trades it had entered with Lehman before its collapse in 2008, Bloomberg News reported. Lehman had accused Credit Suisse of inflating its claim by over $1 billion.