Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse CEO
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse says it finished the difficult year of 2009 with “resilience”: CHF6.7 billion in income, net new assets of CHF44.2 billion and a tier 1 ratio of 16.3 percent. The bank also says, in reporting its financial results Thursday 11 February, that while the average variable compensation was CHF144,000, much of the bonus money is deferred: 40 percent throughout the bank and 60 percent for senior management. Deferred awards are “subject to performance criteria, which may result in future negative adjustments.”
The tier 1 ratio indicates the state of health of a bank’s reserves.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss banks take four out of the 10 top slots in Euromoney’s annual ranking of international private wealth managers, published 8 February. The number one place this year goes to Credit Suisse, which bumped UBS out of the place it has held since the rankings were created in 1994. UBS is now third, with HSBC remaining in second place. Zurich’s Bank Julius Baer is seventh and Geneva’s Pictet is tenth. The list is created by combining performance figures with nominations; more than 1,800 nominations were received this year.
Figures published in January 2009 by the Swiss Bankers Association show Switzerland as the global leader in offshore private banking money, with 27 percent of the world market. Other top players, such as the US and the UK, continue to lag well behind.
The news that Swiss banks are still pulling in large amounts of private wealth comes on the heels of several media reports in recent days that suggest Swiss banking has taken a severe battering. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) 31 January wrote of a “renewed assault” on Swiss banks, once it became clear that Germany was likely to buy bank client data stolen from a Swiss bank.
But the US newspaper a week later wrote that the “gloom on Swiss banks looks overdone”, saying that Germany’s threats are legally dubious and most likely designed a “ruse” to frighten clients. This plus the US-bank UBS court case in 2009 “must be seen in perspective.
Taking a bite out of Swiss bankers' bonuses
Taking a bite out of Swiss bankers' bonuses
Credit Suisse cuts bonuses to pay UK tax, UBS told by Finma to reduce payout
Migros takes in former big bank clients
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s two largest banks will be paying out bonuses, but the amounts are shrinking. Credit Suisse, has told several media 19 January that its overall bonus pool will shrink by 5 percent as it reduces payouts to senior managers to cover the new UK bank tax. The UK has announced it will levy a 50 percent tax on bonuses over £25,000, a one-time charge. Some 400 senior managers in the UK will have their bonuses cut up to 30 percent, Bloomberg reports.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is not likely to introduce a special tax on Swiss banks, the Swiss Federal Department of Finance (FDF) says. It has taken note of US President Barack Obama’s intention to introduce a special levy on the 50 largest financial institutions in the USA in order to recover some $90 billion over 10 years, but it says that Switzerland’s financial system bore up well during the crisis and no public funds were lost.
Credit Suisse may pay $536 million
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has announced it is close to an agreement with US financial regulators concerning its dealings with countries that are subject to US economic sanctions. The bank says that it has closed its representative office in Tehran, Iran as part of its own probe into the investigation by US and New York regulators.
As part of the deal Credit Suisse may pay a $536 million fine, and says it has booked a pre-tax CHF445 million provision in the current quarter.
Urs Rohner
Update 16:55 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Urs Rohner, currently vice-chairman of the board of Credit Suisse, has been named the new chairman, effective in April 2011, the bank announced Thursday 11 December. Rohner, 50, will take over from Hans-Ulrich Doerig, 69, who has agreed to stay on as chairman during what the board called a “challenging time” in the bank’s history.
Rohner has held several executive positions at the bank, including chief operating officer of Credit Suisse AG. He has been with the bank since 2004 and previously worked for a law firm and media company in Zurich. He has a law degree from Zurich University and was admitted to the bar in Zurich and later New York in the US.
He is also well-known in Swiss banking circles for standing out from the crowd: he is a fan of Formula 1 racing and a member of the board of the Zurich Opera. He is often seen at cultural and social events with his glamorous model and actress partner, Nadja Schildknecht, one of the founders of the Zurich Film Festival.
The festival has recently been in the news because its special guest in September was to be film director Roman Polanski, arrested at Zurich Airport s he arrived for the festival.
Etas project in Zimbabwe: the Roger Federer Foundation is spending some CHF80,000 a year on the project to improve the infrastructure of 8 schools, as well as investing in teacher training and the quality of education for about 2,000 children in the Matopo region.
Basel and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roger Federer has signed a 10-year contract with Swiss bank Credit Suisse, for an undisclosed sum, the bank announced Monday 16 November. Federer, on his web site, notes that “As part of the partnership agreement, Credit Suisse will make a significant annual contribution to the Roger Federer Foundation, which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and to promoting education, sports and play, particularly in Africa.” The foundation was inspired by Federer’s South African mother and currently states on its web site that its capital is CHF4 million.
The bank’s CEO, Brady Dougan, did not stint in his enthusiastic praise of the Swiss tennis star:
Photo: Seco
Basel / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss economy remains relatively steady, but with Credit Suisse’s Swiss manufacturing index dropping slightly and the forecast for tourism showing lower but stable figures in coming months. The manufacturing figures “still [show] however that the Alpine economy is leaving the deep recession behind,” reports news agency Reuters. The tourism forecast is gloomier and follows publication of figures by BakBasel, an economic research institute, showing that tourism from November 2008 to October 2009 was the second lowest since the end of the second world war: only 1995 was lower.
Unnecessary bonuses saved
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - UBS has announced changes in its pay policy in an internal memo seen by Reuters. Fixed pay will become a more substantial portion of the total pay package, where previously “the ratio of variable to fixed compensation was in some cases particularly high”, the memo says. The total compensation package will still be in line with market standards, UBS says in the memo to its employees, communicated 5 October.
UBS pays its senior employees in shares or options. These will be frozen for three years before the employee can actually trade them. UBS will only start to pay bonuses when it is profitable again.
Credit Suisse headquarters in Zurich's Paradeplatz, Copyright © 1997 - 2009 CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse group has released figures that show that it earned CHF2.35 billion in the third quarter of 2009, an increase of 61 percent over the second quarter. The bank says its “low-risk” business model is vindicated by the surprisingly strong numbers. This is reflected in part by the net inflows of private client assets, which reached CHF13.1b, a growth of 5.4 percent on an annual basis. Revenues from Private Banking at CHF 723m were lower than in the second quarter, due in part to lower interest income.
Home sweet home
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Home loans, which account for 90 percent of bank credits in Switzerland, have grown by 5.2 percent in the first nine months of 2009, with the rate of increase up most strongly since March. And while the rate of growth of corporate loans is down, they, too, continue to grow.
”There is no credit crunch,” Manuel Jetzer, Geneva region head of Credit Suisse declared at the annual press conference of the Geneva Financial Centre 14 October. “There is no credit contraction in Switzerland.”
Much of the thanks for this goes to the home loan business, which is benefiting from historically low interest rates, with some banks offering new loans for as low as 1.65 percent*.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A report detailing how Switzerland’s financial institutions will ensure smooth business operations in case of major disruptions to the system has been released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). A working group has been focusing on ensuring continuity in interbank payment systems and on the provision of liquidity by the SNB, the report says. Banking authorities (the SNB and Finma, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) have been working with the banking industry (Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Postfinance, UBS) and financial infrastructure operators (Six Group) on the plan.
Credit Suisse headquarters in Zurich's Paradeplatz, Copyright © 1997 - 2009 CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland’s two main banks, reported net income of CHF1.6 billion in the second quarter of 2009. This is 20 percent below the CHF2bn income reported for the first quarter of 2009, but still significantly better than the CHF1.2bn income reported a year earlier. Investment banking contributed the lion’s share of the reported income, reflecting the bank’s “reduced-risk” business model.
Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse CEO
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse has moved into the number one bank slot in Switzerland, overtaking UBS in terms of capitalization, with strong first quarter results published 23 April. The bank’s return on equity for shareholders was up 22.6 percent. Net income was CHF2 million during the first quarter, compared to a loss of CHF2.15 m during the same period in 2008.
A three-part special on housing and the international population in the Lake Geneva region: part 1
(Also see part 2: Myth and reality: how housing in the Lake Geneva region adds up)
Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s population grew by 1.6 percent in 2007, the highest rate since 1963, thanks to immigration fueled by a healthy economy and the country progressively opening up to the Schengen Area free movement of labour, starting in 2002. One result was to put more pressure on the demand for housing, especially in the Lake Geneva region where demand has long been greater than supply.
A new peak in housing demand in 2008 in canton Geneva coincided with new construction falling off, leaving Geneva with an apartment vacancy rate of 0.25 percent on 1 June 2008, the date when national figures are compiled.
Walter Kielholz
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The musical chairs of large Swiss companies, banks in particular, continues Monday with Walter Kielholz, chairman of Credit Suisse, the country’s second largest bank, retiring from the post in order to devote himself to his job as the next chairman of Swiss Re, where he is currently vice-chairman.
Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse CEO
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse, 11 February announced its 2008 results, a loss of CHF8.2 billion, worse than expected. The news comes one day after UBS, the country’s largest bank, announced a loss of CHF20b, the largest annual loss in Swiss corporate history.
Updated 15:05 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse is reported by US financial news service Bloomberg to be ready to cut bonuses for employees by 55%, joining UBS, which is expected to announce 10 February that it will pay CHF2 billion in bonuses for 2008, an 80% cut from 2007. Credit Suisse releases its figures for 2008 the following day, 11 February. Neither bank will confirm the information now and it is not certain that there will be any details in the financial reports released next week. A spokesman at Credit Suisse confirmed to GenevaLunch only that “variable compensation will come down significantly.”
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse has been named as one of the largest creditors in the chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Friday of the the 15th largest newspaper in the US, the influential Minnesota-based Star & Tribune. Documents filed in court Friday show the Swiss international bank as a creditor of first lien, with $46 million owed to it, according to MinnPost, a community newspaper that is closely following the unfolding story.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Amid the many tales of woe circulating post-Madoff scandal, the latest is a story that ran in Sonntag Sunday, picked up by dozens of major international media, that says Credit Suisse customers may have lost up to CHF1 billion in Madoff funds. Bank spokesperson, Jan Vonder Muehll, is quoted by Sonntag as confirming the possible losses but saying “Credit Suisse did not actively recommend or sell products invested with Bernard Madoff. Furthermore, none of the funds of hedge funds offered by Credit Suisse contained holdings in Madoff funds.”
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest Swiss economic survey taken by German research institute ZEW and Credit Suisse shows that analysts outlooks have “brightened up just a little at a very low level.”
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s two largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, will be obliged to increase their “capital adequacy requirements,” or safety net of funds, by 2013, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission announced Thursday morning, amid market tensions. Trading in Credit Suisse shares was stopped shortly before 09:00 when the price fell by more than 4% in early trading after the bank announced it was cutting 11% of its workforce.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse Thursday morning announced that it is cutting 5,300 jobs, mostly in investment banking and by mid-2009, as part of a series of maneuvers to reduce costs. The news, confirming rumours that have circulated this week, comes with the bank’s notice of a modest profit in November, but a loss of about CHF3 billion for the fourth quarter, due to “a significant pre-tax loss” in investment banking in October.
Updated 18:07 New York, NY, USA (TSR, Fre) – First UBS and now Credit Suisse: the IRS, in inquiries which are increasingly far-reaching into fiscal evasion and fraud by US citizens and their overseas banks, has reportedly been investigating Credit Suisse and London-based HSBC since September, according to the New York Times. But Credit Suisse in Zurich says it has no knowledge of such investigations and HSBC saying the same.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Credit Suisse will lay off 650 employees, 10% in its UK office, due to “worsening market conditions,” the BBC reports, but it was not alone, with HSBC announcing it will lay off 500 in the UK and far larger banking layoffs announced in the US Monday.
