Credit Suisse Group AG’s double-barreled financial crisis shares a common theme: a bank that looked the other way when warning signs argued for pulling back on lucrative corners of its business, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss bank with a big Wall Street presence was caught off guard starting in late February when $10 billion in complicated investment funds it ran with financing firm Greensill Capital unraveled, despite years of internal warnings about the relationship.
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Two former Societe Generale SA bankers are challenging Swiss fines issued for failing to report suspicious deposits worth more than $700 million made by a one-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg News reported. The former head of SocGen’s Swiss private bank and the ex-head of compliance, who can only be named as L. and K. under Swiss reporting restrictions, are appealing fines totaling 90,000 swiss francs ($96,000) at a trial starting Wednesday in Bellinzona.
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Credit Suisse said today that it will take a 4.4 billion Swiss franc ($4.7 billion) hit from dealings with Archegos Capital Management, prompting it to overhaul the leadership of its investment bank and risk divisions. The scandal-hit bank now expects to post a loss for the first quarter of around 900 million Swiss francs. It is also suspending its share buyback plans and cutting its dividend by two thirds. Switzerland’s No.
Mark Branson, the head of Switzerland’s financial markets regulator, is to become president of Germany’s finance watchdog BaFin, the finance ministry said on Monday, as part of a shake-up at the regulator after the Wirecard fraud, Reuters reported. Current BaFin president Felix Hufeld is leaving at the end of the month after coming under pressure for failing to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse of the payments company. The implosion of a former blue-chip hailed as a German success story and once worth $28 billion has embarrassed the government and damaged the country’s reputation.
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Almost half of Swiss companies in the restaurant and hospitality sector are at risk of bankruptcy by the end of March without state aid to face the consequences of the restrictions imposed by the fight against COVID-19, warned Sunday the representative federation of the sector, the Inspired Traveler reported. The Swiss government is likely to extend this week the closure of bars, restaurants and entertainment venues across the country until the end of February, with hopes of rolling back the still high number of COVID-19 cases and of deceased.
Switzerland will return $150 million from blocked Swiss bank accounts by the end of the year to the United States to be given to victims of convicted Ponzi scheme con artist Robert Allen Stanford, the Federal Ministry of Justice said on Monday, Reuters reported. Stanford, a former Texas financier known primarily by his middle name, was convicted of fraud by a Houston jury in 2012 in what prosecutors called a $7.2 billion fraud that lasted two decades and which was eclipsed in size only by the Ponzi scheme run by Bernie Madoff.
An easyJet board member has resigned following scrutiny over her role at Wirecard, the collapsed German payments company. Anastassia Lauterbach quit on Monday as a non-executive director of the low-cost carrier with immediate effect after less than two years’ service, the Financial Times reported. Her exit came days after influential shareholder advisory group ISS questioned her place on the board, given that she had been a member of the supervisory board of Wirecard, the scandal-hit German company that filed for insolvency in June after revealing a multiyear frau
Swiss baked goods maker Aryzta rejected on Friday an 800 million Swiss franc ($904 million) takeover approach from Elliott Advisors, saying it preferred to go it alone, Reuters reported. “Aryzta announces that after careful review of the Elliott proposal, including the envisaged refinancing for Aryzta, the Board has decided unanimously to reject the proposal and not enter into a transaction agreement with Elliott,” it said in a statement. Elliott declined to comment.
A federal judge upheld a $1.5 billion debt restructuring by offshore-drilling contractor Transocean Ltd., ruling against a hedge-fund bondholder that claimed it was treated unfairly as the company took steps to survive a turbulent oil market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Judge George B. Daniels of the U.S. District Court in New York rejected efforts by Whitebox Advisors LLC to call a debt default against Transocean during a painful period for deep-water drilling that has sent several peer companies to bankruptcy.
Shareholders of baking goods maker Aryzta have elected a chairman who has previously spoken out against a takeover, after a deadline on an 800 million Swiss franc ($902.53 million) approach from Elliott Advisors expired last week, Reuters reported. Urs Jordi was elected as chairman of the struggling company, which produces McDonald’s burger buns, at its remotely held annual general meeting. Jordi has said now is not the time for Aryzta to consider selling up, instead favouring a restructuring of the company, whereas some previous board members favoured a takeover.