Swiss financial regulator FINMA on Monday said it was seeking to identify any potential contagion risks for the country's banks and insurers following the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, Reuters reported. Shares in Swiss banks slumped along with others in the sector globally after moves by U.S. authorities to guarantee deposits of the two lenders failed to reassure investors.
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Switzerland
Credit Suisse's head of regulatory compliance, Julian Gooding, is leaving Switzerland's second-biggest bank as part of a sweeping overhaul involving thousands of job cuts, Reuters reported. Gooding was one of the most senior managers in compliance, overseeing anti-fraud measures as well as matters relating to market conduct and investors protection. He had been in the role since January 2022 and previously held senior positions as general counsel in various parts of the bank.
The Swiss National Bank cannot rule out that it will have to raise interest rates again to bring inflation under control, Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We cannot rule out that we will have to further tighten monetary policy," said Jordan in his final public appearance before the SNB makes its next decision on interest rates on March 23. The central bank was also ready to intervene in currency markets, buying and selling foreign currencies, to achieve its goal of price stability, Jordan told an event in Zurich.
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A crypto fund manager overseeing $400 million is looking to Swiss banks to help plug the gap created by the unraveling of a key payments network operated by ailing US lender Silvergate Capital Corp., Bloomberg News reported. Digital Asset Capital Management used Silvergate’s round-the-clock, real-time network to move funds to and from Coinbase Global Inc.’s platform. But Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini are among the exchanges that will no longer accept or initiate payments through Silvergate.
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Credit Suisse Group AG failed in its duties as an asset manager and violated Swiss supervisory law in its operation of $10 billion in investment funds with now-bankrupt financing partner Greensill Capital Management, the Wall Street Journal reported. Switzerland’s financial regulator, Finma, outlined a range of measures the bank must take to improve governance and comply with Swiss rules. It said it opened enforcement proceedings against four former Credit Suisse managers. Finma doesn’t have any powers to impose direct financial penalties or to prosecute companies.
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Switzerland's financial regulator has investigated 12 banks and launched enforcement proceedings against two of them in relation to corruption charges against longtime central banker Riad Salameh, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. Lebanese authorities charged Salameh, his brother Raja and one of his assistants on Thursday with money laundering, embezzlement and illicit enrichment after months of delay in the high-profile case. The Salameh brothers have denied wrongdoing throughout the process.
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Credit Suisse Group AG is exiting distressed debt and special-situations trading, as part of its broader exit from risky and capital-intensive businesses, Bloomberg News reported. The bank is selling a book of assets including bond and loan positions related to distressed companies, with a market value of about $250 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Final commitments from bidders are due this week after the portfolio was put up for sale in December.
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Swiss consumer prices rose by 3.3% in January - marking a year that inflation has remained above the Swiss National Bank's 0-2% target range, data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The increase was more than expected, with economists forecasting the year-on-year rate to rise to 2.9%, up from the 2.8% rate seen in December. Prices were 0.6% higher month-on-month due to more expensive electricity and gas. Hotel accommodation also recorded a price increase, as did bread and coffee.
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Switzerland’s government will not receive a payout from the Swiss National Bank for 2022, as the central bank projects the biggest loss in its 116-year history, Bloomberg News reported. The SNB expects an annual loss of about 132 billion francs ($143 billion), more than five times the previous record, it said Monday in preliminary results. The largest part of this, 131 billion francs, stems from collapsed valuations of its large pile of holdings in foreign currencies, accrued as a result of decade-long purchases to weaken the franc.
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A Swiss court has granted a six-month “stay of bankruptcy” to the operating company for the never-opened Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was built to bring Russian gas to Germany but put on ice shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, ABC News reported. The company's stay was extended from Jan. 10 through July 10 by a regional court in the Swiss canton (state) of Zug, according to a notice published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom, is based in Zug.