GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Commission Against the Death Penalty (ICDP), established in Madrid one year ago by the Spanish government with strong support from Switzerland, is moving its head office to Geneva next week, the group has announced. The move coincides with World Day Against the Day Penalty 11 October, which will be highlighted in Geneva with a public debate and film at the Alhambra.
The group is moving to Geneva to be able to work more closely with various United Nations organizations that are involved in the issues surrounding the death penalty. It will be housed at the Académie de droit international humanitaire et de droits humains.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Wall Street Journal is creating a stir in the international banking world with its report Thursday 26 May that Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, plans to move its investment bank out of Switzerland, perhaps to London, Hong Kong or Singapore. The move would in theory allow it to escape tough new capital requirements for Swiss banks that were approved 19 May by Swiss parliamentary commissions, with a final parliamentary debate scheduled this summer. The new regulations, if passed, could start to go into effect in 2012.
Banks worldwide are struggling to prepare for tougher international standards under the Basel III agreement, but Switzerland has taken its capital requirements a step further, and UBS has expressed concern in the past about the timeframe for the requirements, suggesting a corporate reorganization might be the answer. Its comments have sparked much speculation that at least parts of the bank might be based elsewhere, but the implications for regulating the UBS group if part of it leaves Switzerland remain fuzzy.
Reuters reports that UBS and Finma, the Swiss bank regulatory body, are offering no comment on the WSJ article, but it notes that a UBS spokesperson called it “speculation”.
The investment bank is the arm of UBS that required a CHF39 billion bailout by the Swiss government at the end of 2008 and in early 2009.
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Geneva's Mont Blanc McDonald's sports the new look
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest company to leave the UK and move to Switzerland is fast food giant McDonald’s, which will shift its European head office to Geneva later in 2009, the Tribune de Geneve reported late Friday. European president Denis Hennequin and a small team of possibly a dozen people will make the move. The Tribune says the company will be housed in the former offices of Bank Mirabaud on Boulevard du Théâtre, but the company has said only that details will be announced closer to the date of the move.
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper links the move to a change in the UK’s “taxation of foreign profits linked to intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks” but it notes that the company stresses its tax rate will remain virtually unchanged.
