Swiss banks have criticised planned new measures designed to cool the country's red hot property market, saying the steps were unnecessary and would do nothing to slow rising house prices, Bloomberg News reported. The government said on Wednesday that from October, lenders must increase their cushion against home lending risks, sounding the alarm over one of Europe's most expensive housing markets, where total mortgage lending has swollen to more than $1 trillion.
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The European Union's relationship with Switzerland could fall apart if negotiations over Switzerland's place in the EU internal market fail, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said, Reuters reported. Brussels has pushed for years for a treaty to cap an array of bilateral accords and require the Swiss to routinely adopt changes to single market rules. Talks between Bern and its biggest trading partner broke off in May over concerns about yielding too much sovereignty to the bloc.
Credit Suisse has launched legal action against SoftBank in an effort to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars it claims it is owed by the Japanese investor, marking a further deterioration in a relationship that has grown increasingly acrimonious following the collapse of Greensill Capital, Asia Nikkei reported. The lawsuit relates to $440m in funds that were owed to the Swiss bank's wealthy customers by Katerra, a U.S. construction company.
French judges are set to rule on Monday on whether to overturn a record 4.5 billion euro ($5.1 billion) fine against Swiss bank UBS (UBSG.S) for allegedly helping wealthy clients stash undeclared assets offshore, Reuters reported. The case is being watched by banks to see if it signals a toughening European stance. Fines in Europe for tax-related and other offences have in the past been smaller than in the United States, but the size of the UBS penalty has proved an exception.
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Credit Suisse’s legal charges started rising last year as it sought to clear civil cases in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Credit Suisse Group AG CS 0.40% is vowing to end reckless risk-taking at the bank. The cost of earlier misdeeds are likely to keep biting back for years, weighing on efforts to put the past behind it. The Swiss lender suffered twin disasters this year from the implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management and financing partner Greensill Capital’s bankruptcy.
Credit Suisse Group AG has agreed to pay nearly $475 million to American and British authorities to resolve charges in connection with Mozambican bond offerings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The charges centered on the Zurich-based bank's role in a $2 billion scandal involving government-guaranteed loans. The SEC said Credit Suisse fraudulently misled investors and violated U.S. bribery laws in a scheme involving two bond offerings and a syndicated loan that raised funds on behalf of state-owned entities in Mozambique.
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Switzerland proposed updated rules to ensure major banks hold enough liquidity to absorb shocks, but the draft changes will cost banks little or nothing in additional capital and liquidity holdings, government documents showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. The proposed revisions, which were sent into consultation on Thursday, aim to ensure that systemically important banks (SIBs) -- which include Credit Suisse and UBS -- remain resilient under various stress scenarios, including in some cases not adequately covered by current rules, the government said.
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The World Economic Forum will return to the Swiss ski resort of Davos in 2022, after the pandemic forced organizers to shift to Singapore and then cancel their meeting altogether this year, Bloomberg News reported. The in-person event is scheduled for Jan. 17-21 and designed “to address economic, environmental, political and social fault lines exacerbated by the pandemic,” the group said on Thursday. It is working with the Swiss government and health experts to establish the appropriate safety measures.
The Swiss government lowered its outlook for economic growth this year, citing headwinds such as the global logistics logjam and the slow resumption of intercontinental travel, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product is forecast to expand 3.4% this year, down from a previous forecast of 3.8%, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said on Thursday. The inflation rate is set to remain low, averaging just 0.5% in 2021.
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EY auditors in Switzerland failed to raise the alarm over multimillion-dollar jewelery purchases and approved huge payments to opaque offshore companies in the years before one of the country’s biggest ever corporate collapses, the Irish Times reported. Zeromax, a conglomerate based in the Swiss canton of Zug, had a business empire in Uzbekistan with interests ranging from textile processing to natural gas extraction that made it the Asian country’s largest employer, accounting for as much as 10 per cent of GDP.
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