Switzerland’s economic growth will stay below its potential this year and next, the government said. Output will expand 0.9 per cent in 2015 and 1.5 per cent in 2016, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. Its previous prediction, issued in June, was for growth of 0.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Economic growth has slowed after the Swiss National Bank gave up its cap on the franc eight months ago.

A Geneva prosecutor has closed a six-year investigation into a criminal complaint by Saudi Arabia's Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) against Maan al-Sanea and two units of his Saad Group, the prosecutor's office told Reuters. Family conglomerate AHAB and separate Saudi business empire Saad Group collapsed in 2009 and have since been battling in multiple jurisdictions over who was to blame for the issues which affected their respective groups, including the default on bank debts worth billions of dollars.

Prosecutors in Switzerland said on Thursday that they had ended an investigation into possible money laundering at HSBC’s Swiss private bank without filing any criminal charges, the reported. The Geneva prosecutor’s office said that it would not pursue charges against the Swiss unit and that HSBC would pay 40 million Swiss francs, or about $42.8 million, to settle the inquiry. “The investigation found that neither the bank nor its employees are suspected of any current criminal offenses,” HSBC said in a statement.

Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among six banks to be fined a total of $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) by British and US regulators over allegations that they rigged the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, The Standard reported. The settlement, which also involved US banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citi, as well as Switzerland’s UBS, means banks have handed authorities around $10 billion to deal with the scandal. Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and RBS also all pleaded guilty to a US antitrust violation.

Switzerland’s new “say on pay” rules could make it harder for investment banking stars at UBS and Credit Suisse to outpace their bosses in compensation, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. All the country’s listed companies face binding shareholder votes on executive compensation this year. But the Swiss public’s hostility toward its banks means they could be first in the firing line. The initial effect on UBS and Credit Suisse’s investment banking chiefs will be indirect.

Switzerland refused a request for assistance to help bring prosecutions here on the basis of the leaked HSBC Geneva banking files, according to the Irish Revenue Commissioners. Revenue chairman Niall Cody has also told the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts that 13 people are the subject of ongoing investigations arising from the Swiss data, with the amount in their accounts involving a maximum of $14.83 million.

The Swiss National Bank ’s decision to scrap its cap on the franc’s value will weigh on the Alpine country’s economy and could lead to one or two quarters of contraction, the head of the central bank, Thomas Jordan, said Saturday. The Zurich-based SNB stunned financial markets last month when it abandoned its 3½-year-old cap for the franc-euro, sending the Swiss stock market plunging and pushing the franc sharply higher, The Wall Street Journal reported. The SNB had no option but to exit its minimum exchange rate policy as “the international environment had changed,” Mr.

Administrators for currency trading firm Alpari (UK) Ltd said they had received a number of inquiries from potential buyers of the business hit by heavy losses from last week's surge in the value of the Swiss franc, Reuters reported. Alpari lost millions of dollars after the Swiss National Bank removed its currency cap on Thursday and administrators appointed on Monday said that efforts to find a buyer for Alpari (UK) over the weekend failed and they would hold talks with interested suitors in the coming days. U.S.

Sputnik Engineering, the parent company of Swiss inverter manufacturer Solarmax, will file for insolvency in Switzerland this week PV Tech has learned. In a circular sent to customers and seen by PV Tech, the company said it had looked for alternatives but to no avail. “The employees have been informed this morning and will stop working today until further notice,” it said in the statement. The company is not the first European manufacturer to struggle as the domestic market declined and competition increased.

A Swiss financial company embroiled in the Espírito Santo saga is in the process of largely shutting down, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Lausanne-based company, Eurofin Holding SA, is selling or spinning off businesses and winding down asset portfolios, these people said. It is possible that parts of the company will emerge in some form under a different name, one person said.