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ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – One of Switzerland’s worst spots for traffic jams will get some breathing space, with the Federal Highway Office approving a plan to widen the road from four to six lanes over 12 kilometres of the A1. A 3,300 metre-long additional tube will be added to the Gubrist tunnel.
The project, at a cost of CHF940 million, covers several works: the Weiningen and Affoltern intersections will be redone, a 750 metre viaduc will be built at Katzensee, anti-noise devices are being installed and a new drainage system will be built.
The project has been contentious, particularly over covering the west end of the Gubrist tunnel entrance, which the highway department rejected but which the commune of Weiningen has demanded. Federal, city and village authorities are now involved in talks to find a solution without delaying start of the construction project.
In addition, 113 property owners objected to the price they were offered for the land they are obliged to cede for the project, but their objections were overruled.
By William New
(republished with permission from Geneva-based Intellectual Property Watch)
In an unprecedented action suggesting intellectual property rights have bumped up against an access threshold, thousands of websites have gone “dark” today in protest against two draft anti-piracy and counterfeiting bills in the US Congress that the protestors say would harm freedoms online. The protest includes major technology firms like Google, Mozilla, Wikipedia, Flikr, Reddit, Vimeo and WordPress.
The website SOPA Strike lists dozens of participating sites.
US technology lobbying groups have joined as well, such as the Consumer Electronics Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computer and Communications Industry Association, MoveOn.org, and the National Venture Capital Association. A range of others, such as environmental activist group Greenpeace, tech publication Wired, BoingBoing.net, the Internet Archive, internet anonymity site Tor Project, and software service Tucows joined in. A number of websites provided tools for reaching congressional representatives or to sign a petition. Facebook created a page raising concerns about the bills.
At issue are two bills in Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate variant, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Sponsors of the bills proposed changes in recent days (IPW, US Policy, 17 January 2012), but the protest proceeded to send its message.
Google put a black censorship block over its well-known image above the search mechanism box. It included a link to a page declaring “End Piracy Not Liberty”, and explaining: “Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S. Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late,” Google said.
Google added:
Taxpayers get CHF1 billion via federal, cantonal budget boosts
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss federal and cantonal budgets look set to receive some CHF1 billion from the Swiss National Bank, which expects to end 2011 with a profit of CHF13 billion. A little over one-third of the profit, CHF5b, is thanks to the meteoric rise of the price of gold during the year. The other CHF8 billion is due to foreign currency positions.
The consolidated result for the year is “likely to be somewhat better” as UBS repays its 2008 bailout debt through what is called the stabilization fund.
The other CHF12b will be distributed roughly as follows:
- allocation to provisions for currency reserves, CHF3.2 billion
- CHF5b to fill the gap in the distribution reserve that goes to the Confederation and the cantons
- remaining profit to the distribution reserve.
Definitive figures and details, including movements in foreign currency positions during the year, will be released 8 March.
SNB chairman Philipp Hildebrand, who resigned following a scandal over dollars purchased by his wife, has been praised this week by a number of financial leaders outside Switzerland for his exemplary work as a central banker. EU Central Bank President Mario Draghi told a Frankfurt press conference 11 January that “we all regret the developments that led to Mr Hildebrand’s resignation because I think we will miss a very, very good central bank governor.”
Ed. note: The Financial Times has published a commentary on the implications for European financial leadership of Hildebrand’s tenure at the SNB (free, registration required)
IT whistleblower says lawyer took advantage of him
Philipp Hildebrand, former chairman of the Swiss central bank
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss central bank chairman Philipp Hildebrand, age 48, has just resigned, effective immediately, but the scandal over the theft of private bank data and the financial transactions of Hildebrand’s wife is not likely to die down quickly.
He had worked for the bank since 2003 and was named the youngest ever chairman in January 2010.
Hildebrand said at a press conference last Thursday, 5 January, that he would remain in office as long as he had the support of the Swiss Federal Council, the cabinet. He called for reform in the wake of the scandal, including greater transparency on the part of central bank governors about their own financial transactions. Full text of HIldebrand press conference presentation (pdf)
He denied wrongdoing, saying that the CHF60,000 profit on currency transactions from August to October 2011 was his wife’s responsibility; a Bank Council investigation as well as one done by PricewaterhouseCooper’s support his claim. Hildebrand’s wife is a former currency trader who now owns a Zurich art gallery and the transactions were reportedly on behalf of her business.
But observers including a number of politicians have said in the past week that even if the central banker respected the letter of the law, and even if the law needs to be changed, he acted irresponsibly. Bloomberg/Business Week quotes Peter Kunz, head of business law at the University of Bern, as saying it’s “absolutely incomprehensible” that the relatives aren’t included in the regulations. “‘From a legal point of view, Ms Hildebrand’s dollar trade isn’t problematic,’ he said. “From the point of view of morality, experienced economic experts like the Hildebrands should know that a spouse’s trades are not without problems.’”
Kashya Hildebrand’s purchase of $500,000 in August, and sale of them in October, came during a period when the Swiss franc continued to climb against the dollar and the euro. Her husband had responsibility for Swiss monetary policy and capped the over-valued franc.
The banker is scheduled to issue a statement and copies of documents at 15:15 Monday, shortly after announcing his resignation. He was earlier scheduled to appear before parliament Monday afternoon to answer questions and share documents. Parliament still has a press conference scheduled for 18:00.
The unfolding story over the weekend centred, not around Hildebrand, but the man who stole the data, who contacted three Swiss media to say he has been abused.
UDC, lawyer and IT employer tell different tales
The 39-year-old IT worker says he turned to a lawyer with the information about Hildebrand’s accounts, not because he wanted to be a whistleblower or to have the information widely published, but because he wanted to understand the significance of the information he had viewed.
The man, who lost his job at Bank Sarasin after turning himself into police, copied data from the private accounts of Hildebrand and shared it with an old childhood friend, now a lawyer and cantonal politician in Thurgau, Hermann Lei. The man who is being investigated for taking the information has been hospitalized and is under surveillance in a psychiatric unit for fear he will try to commit suicide.
But the details of what happened differ depending on the source: the IT worker and Lei, through his lawyer, both say they met with Christoph Blocher, former head of the rightwing UDC People’s Party, who has had an abrasive relationship with Hildebrand. Blocher has remained silent on the affair, but the UDC denies such a meeting ever took place.
The IT employee says he did not give Lei permission to turn the material over to Weltwoche, a Swiss political weekly magazine that published details a week ago, information that Lei’s lawyer denies.
SNB rules tightened Saturday, but parliament wanted more answers
The Bank Council, which oversees the Swiss National Bank, announced after an extraordinary meeting Saturday that it was tightening rules to include family members of the governing board and to reduce to CHF20,000, effective immediately, the amount of foreign currency board members can trade without advance clearing.
See also: GenevaLunch background stories on Hildebrand and the SNB
Dollars, francs, euros pounds, yen - a little sweetener added by central banks Wednesday
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank (SNB) WEdnesday 30 November joined with other major central banks for a series of “coordinated actions to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system.
The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity,” the SNB says in a statement issued during the afternoon.
Stock markets in the US rose on the news that came about the time markets in New York opened.
The news was a bright spark in a gloomy UK, where some 2 million workers are striking today and in Brussels, where finance ministers are holding urgent sovereign debt crisis talks.
“The euro and European shares surged on the news, which came after euro zone finance ministers agreed to ramp up the firepower of their bailout fund but acknowledged they may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for more help,” Reuters reports.
Specifically, the central bank measures taken include:
- making it cheaper for banks to buy dollars starting 5 December: “lower the pricing on the existing temporary US dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate will be the US dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 50 basis points”
- as a contingency measure: the central banks “have also agreed to establish temporary bilateral liquidity swap arrangements, so that liquidity can be provided in each jurisdiction, in any of their currencies should market conditions so warrant”, noting that for now only the dollar needs liquidity, among non-domestic currencies
- The SNB will establish a temporary network of reciprocal swap lines in cooperation with other central banks: “This action will allow the SNB to provide Swiss francs to these central banks when required, as well as enabling the SNB to provide liquidity, should it be needed, in Canadian dollars, British pounds, Japanese yen, and euros (in addition to the existing operations in US dollars). The SNB continues to closely monitor the developments in global money markets.”
The other central banks have taken some additional actions. The European Central Bank notes that “In addition, the initial margin for three-month US dollar operations will be reduced from currently 20% to 12% and weekly updates of the EUR/USD exchange rate will be introduced in order to carry out margin calls. Those changes will be effective as of the operations to be conducted on 7 December 2011.”
The 1 December window on the 2010 Sustainable Development calendar gave us a peek at the world behind our chocolate products - two more days until you can open the new 2011 calendar windows!
BERN, SWITZERLAND – One of Switzerland’s quirky offerings is back, the seasonal Swiss online sustainable development Advent calendar where you can have a lesson a day and take part in daily quizzes to try to win prizes, in the interest of boosting sustainability.
A bonus is the list of gift ideas to spark your imagination for suitable gifts. The project, started in 2000, is now available in five languages, to encourage broader participation worldwide.
The calendar is put together by a surprisingly rich mix of researchers, companies, educational groups, federal authorities, environmental organizations and others who are joining forces for the second year to create the online calendar (see list of partners).
For those who did not grow up with Advent calendars, the idea is that for the four weeks of Advent that run up to Christmas, you open a window a day, usually to find an interesting little gift, either visual or physical.
The windows work with themes such as green technology, especially ICT and protecting nature. The sources of information for the windows come from firms, non-governmental organizations and the Swiss government, one-third each. The windows are designed to show “affordable, pleasant or simply surprising solutions” according to the federal energy office which, with the Swiss sustainable development network, Öbu, is a major sponsor.
Examples of corporate solutions include: travel company Kuoni shows the first sustainable development certifiied agency trips; Coop supermarket chain shows how certified palm oil can be part of our consumer products; Ricola, the herbal sweets maker shows us attractive homes for bees so we can reduce their mortality rate, while canton Geneva and the town of Yverdon-les-bains show us why it makes sense to recycle the cartons used for many of our drinks.
Time flies when trade is growing rapidly; Indian Trade Minister Arnand Sharna at Baselworld 2011
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Trade between India and Switzerland, currently negotiating a bilateral free trade treaty, has grown at a “fulgerant” rate in the past 20 years, the Swiss Customs Office says. Exports from Switzerland to India grew by 18 percent in the first nine months of 2011 and have now crossed the threshold of CHF3 billion.
Swiss exports grew seven-fold from 1990 to 2010, from CHF378 million to nearly CHF2.6 billion. Imports from India grew during the same period from CHF251m to CHF901m. Trade with India has thus grown dramatically, but India remains Switzerland’s seventh trading partner, well behind China, with Swiss exports of CHF7.1b and Japan, with CHF6.43.
Chemicals account for main exports as well as imports: mainly pharmaceuticals for Swiss exports, with basic chemical products and finished ones sharing the imports from India about equally. Other Swiss exports: machines, particularly precision instruments, and electronics plus watches.
GUATEMALA – Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has apologized to the family of former President Jacobo Arbenz who was ousted in a 1954 coup backed by the United States.
Colom has acknowledged the state’s responsibility in overthrowing Arbenz.
“That day changed Guatemala and we have not recuperated from it yet,” he said. “It was a crime to Guatemalan society and it was an act of aggression to a government starting its democratic spring.”
In addition to the apology, the Guatemalan government also agreed to revise textbooks in Guatemala to include Arbenz’ positive influence on the country, his biography will be rewritten, the national highway he built will be named after him, and a new educational program will be created to train government staff so that they always take into account the needs of farmers and indigenous people, as Arbenz promoted during his tenure, said the Guatemala Times.
Links to: New York Times, the Guatemala Times.
Dominique Strauss Kahn will meet French accuser - Photo source IMF
PARIS, FRANCE – The Parquet, or public prosecutor in Paris, has ordered Tristane Banone, 32-year-old journalist, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn to face each other in court, after hearing each in preliminary interviews. DSK, as he is popularly known, resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund while arrested in New York on charges (later dropped) of raping a hotel maid, earlier this year.
Banone has accused him of trying to rape her in 2003, in a case that continues to grip French media, in part because of DSK’s political ambitions.
Each is accusing the other of lying and DSK is bringing charges of defamation against Banone.
The court has not set a date for the two to meet before a judge.
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Siwss unemployment figures for August show no change in the rate, at 2.8 percent. The 2,487 additional people out of work correspond roughly to the number of new young people (ages 15-24) out of work, a seasonal factor as recent graduates come onto the job market.
The overall jobless rate is down by 21.8 percent compared to a year earlier, but UBS in a revised forecast for the Swiss economy 7 September said it expects to see unemployment rise to 3 percent and stabilize there in coming months.
Swiss franc pegged to euro: central bank hopes it will be less attractive today
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank (SNB) Tuesday late morning announced it is fixing the Swiss franc to the euro at a rate that will not be allowed to slip below euro 1.20 and says it is “prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities”.
Its action was accompanied by the toughest words to date on what it referred to as the “current massive overvaluation of the Swiss franc”, saying this “poses an acute threat to the Swiss economy and carries the risk of a deflationary development.” Reuters remarked that it had used “some of the strongest language from a central bank in the modern era”.
The SNB says it is “aiming for a substantial and sustained weakening of the Swiss franc. With immediate effect, it will no longer tolerate a EUR/CHF exchange rate below the minimum rate of CHF1.20.”
The SNB statement notes that “even at a rate of CHF 1.20 per euro, the Swiss franc is still high and should continue to weaken over time. If the economic outlook and deflationary risks so require, the SNB will take further measures.”
The euro had lost more than 13 percent against the Swiss franc since the start of 2011 before the SNB’s decision. Bloomberg reports that later in the day “The franc snapped four days of gains versus the euro, dropping as much as 8.7 percent. It traded at 1.2025 at 3:42 pm in Zurich and was at 85.49 centimes versus the dollar.”
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) half-year report issued Friday is hardly cheering news at the start of a long national holiday weekend, with an interim consolidated loss of CHF10.8 billion francs thanks to the strength of the Swiss franc against major currencies, before allocation to reserves. “The SNB result depends largely on developments in the gold, foreign exchange and capital markets. Consequently, strong fluctuations are normal, and only provisional conclusions are possible as regards the annual result,” the central bank says in a statement.
The SNB in 2010 showed a loss of CHF19.17b in 2010 and a profit of CHF9.96b in 2009.
Foreign currency position losses were some CHF9.9 billion, January to June, due mainly to exchange rate-related valuation losses of around
CHF 11.7 billion. The US dollar depreciated by 9.6 percent, the yen by 8.9 percent and the euro by 2.4 percent, according to the bank, and while there were some currency gains, they were not enough to offset these losses.
The gold price per kg at mid-year was about CHF40,800, resulting in a valuation loss of CHF 1.6 billion. The SNB’s gold holdings were unchanged, but they suffered a valuation loss of CHF1.6 billion: “Although the dollar price per fine ounce rose compared to the end-year
value, the price per kilogram fell from CHF42,289 to CHF40,799 as a result of the weaker USD exchange rate,” the SNB notes.
UBS stabilization fund reduced
The SNB loan to the stabilization fund that was created in late 2008 to bail out the country’s largest bank, UBS, was reduced from CHF11.8b
($12.6b) to CHF8.0 billion ($9.4b), during the first six months. “The total risk decreased from almost CHF14b to around CHF10b, the SNB reports, with the fund showing a half-yearly profit of $1.334b, representing a contribution of CHF 697 million to the consolidated result.”
Reserves to be allocated at the end of the year
Switzerland’s reserves are 25 percent in dollars, 55 percent in euros, 3 percent in GB sterling, 10 percent in the Japanese yen, 4 percent in Canadian dollars, with 3 percent “other”. By law, the SNB must set aside provisions to “maintain the currency reserves at the level necessary
for monetary policy”; the allocation will be made towards the end of the year.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gloomy news about sovereign debts, new bank capital requirements and the US debt ceiling were briefly forgotten on world stock markets Wednesday 20 July, with strong results from several tech companies. Apple lead the way with a 125 percent increase in net income for the second quarter, compared to a year earlier. IBM also had results well above predictions. The stronger than expected corporate results plus news from the White House that a debt ceiling deal may be coming prompted markets to rally. Apple’s shares rose 4.5 percent in trading Tuesday, with the income jump attributed to Asian markets and iPhone sales.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Reuters
Swiss franc reaches record highs against euro, dollar
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss franc was being exchanged in Asia for $.81 and €1.14 shortly before midnight, TSR reports. Thursday’s exchange rates as listed by Reuters showed the franc trading at $.81 and €1.16 at 14:00 Swiss time Thursday.
The Swiss currency was trading at new highs against the dollar and the euro, as concerns grow over the US debt ceiling, rising debt costs for Italy and the downgrading of Irish sovereign debt.
Ikea (here: Geneva) is one of Switzerland's many international companies
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss federal government’s tool for companies to check if their remuneration programmes respect the law on equal pay is now available in English, Bern announced Tuesday 28 June.
Logib, which was downloaded 3,700 times in 2010, was difficult for international companies, Swiss-based or foreign, to use because there was no English version.
“Logib makes it easy for companies to establish to what extent they respect an equal pay policy. They can then decide if they need to carry out a more thorough analysis with the help of experts,” the Federal Department of Home Affairs says in a statement.
It notes that other countries have expressed interest in the tool, and it has been adopted by Germany and Luxembourg.
Switzerland is a party to several international agreements on equal pay for equal work for men and women; companies are also required to make a public statement that they respect the principle of equal pay.
Source: US State Department (click on image to view larger)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland in 2010 retained its poor “tier 2″ ranking in the annual US Trafficking in Persons Report 2011, one of the most broad-ranging global studies of the extent of the problem.
Tier 1 countries comply fully with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, while tier 2 countries are defined as those “whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards”.
Tier 2 watch countries and Tier 3 countries, those not in compliance, risk being penalized by the US.
Estimates for the number of people trafficked are notoriously unreliable but tend to hover around 30 million globally. The US Department of State, which publishes the annual trafficking report this year added 7 countries, bringing the total reviewed to 184. It lists as the main categories: forced labour, sex trafficking, bonded labour, debt bondage among migrant workers, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labour, child soldiers and child sex trafficking.
The UN Global Compact in 2008 issued a report noting that 2.1 million people are in forced labour, but for even the mostly closely involved NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) note that a key problem for all areas of trafficking is that the people registered and reflected in statistics under-represent the extent of the problem.
A February 2011 report issued by the Geneva-based IOM (International Organization for Migration) reported that re-trafficking complicates efforts to arrive at valid estimates.
Switzerland should prohibit all prostitution under age 18, report suggests
Geneva, marked by much coming (growth) despite the going (exodus): companies, individuals
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva comes out looking pretty but at a price, in the latest “location quality” comparison drawn up by bank Credit Suisse for Swiss cantons. The report issued 22 June says Geneva’s growing economic success is thanks in particular to the availability of high quality labour and its easy accessibility. Geneva’s growth rate from 1995-2008 was the strongest in French-speaking Switzerland.
Victim of its success leads to greater regional cooperation
The canton is nevertheless a victim of its own success, the report notes, with companies and individuals moving to neighboring canton Vaud and across the border to France. A growing regional cooperation is developing as a result, the report notes.
Geneva is one of the country’s smallest cantons, at 282 square kilometres but it is ranked fourth for dynamic economic performance by the bank after Zurich, Zug and Aargau, wth the last two benefitting from their proximity to Zurich.
Geneva’s strength comes from its mixed role as a home to international organizations and as Switzerland’s second international financial centre plus main centre for private wealth management, but it has also been growing rapidly as a trading centre for raw materials. It is gradually going through a transformation from cutting edge industries to cutting edge value-added business, which means that measuring by the value created per employee is one of the country’s highest.
Disposable income in Geneva is by far the lowest in Switzerland
The downside is that Geneva has the tax rates, corporate and personal, that are among Switzerland’s highest, with some of the most costly housing in the country. As a result, Geneva’s regional disposable income, or RDI, used to calculate the financial attractiveness of cantons for residence, is by far the lowest in Switzerland.
Credit Suisse points to the exodus towards France and neighbouring towns, notably Nyon, Rolle and Morges, as the direct result of these high costs, both for companies and individuals.
Lausanne at dusk, viewed from Lake Geneva: growing number of foreigners live in the city, its suburbs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva, with its international organizations and United Nations European seat is not likely to lose its reputation as Switzerland’s international city, but Lausanne has been creeping up on it as an international centre. From 2008 to 2010 the resident foreigners’ share of the total population in the capital of Vaud was higher than that in Geneva, and growing faster.
Figures published Monday 30 May by Badac, the Swiss cantons and cities database, show that Lausanne has had a larger percentage of foreigners than Geneva in recent years, although the two are close: Lausanne’s population in 2010 was 39.24 percent foreigners while Geneva’s was 38.58 percent, but while the increase in the foreign population in Geneva was .95 percent, Lausanne’s was 1.22 percent.
The figures take into account only the cities themselves, not their larger urban areas. Geneva’s population in 2010 was 185,958 and Lausanne’s was 125,885.
Smaller cities in the Lake Geneva region, such as some suburbs of Lausanne and Geneva, have even higher percentages of foreigners, including some of the highest rates in Switzerland: Montreux, 44.33 percent foreigners, Meyrin 33.99, Carouge 36.97, Renens 50.85, Nyon 36.39, Vevey 43.38, Morges 33.17, Versoix 33.20, Grand-Saconnex 28.40, Ecublens 43.03, Chêne-Bougeries 29.68.
Spreitenbach (50.74 percent), northwest of Zurich, and Renens (50.85), west of Lausanne, have a majority of foreigners; they are the only two Swiss cities over 10,000 where resident foreigners make up more than 50 percent of the population.
Electric car at the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland, with
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The German government has confirmed it will subsidize its budding green car industry with up to euros 1 million for electric cars, in order to have one million of them on the road by 2020. Angela Merkel made the announcement Saturday in her weekly newscast.
Welt am Sonntag newspaper says Germany is also considering boosting sales by encouraging consumers through tax cuts and special parking areas that would be free for electric cars, among other measures.
The amount is smaller than the estimate mentioned a month ago by puregreencars, which says industry analysts expect the green car measures to create up to 30,000 jobs, noting that the government plans to buy electric cars for its ministries.
But Spiegel magagzine in late April wrote that the government appeared to be setting off on the wrong carbon foot, with electric cars often having a worse carbon footprint than others.
AlpIQ, the Swiss Alpine energy company, which backs several electric car projects, predicts that 15 percent of the Swiss car fleet will be electric by 2020. The Alpmobil resort cars project during the summer of 2010 near the Grimsel and Furka passes saw a fleet of 60 electric cars made available to tourists, for silent, pollution-free touring.
©2011 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
SNB profit, a tale of currency movements
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A net profit of CHF1.9 billion for the first three months of 2011 at The Swiss National Bank was due largely to currency fluctuations, the central bank said Friday 29 April. The net result from foreign currency positions was CHF1.6 billion, while losses from Swiss franc holdings were CHF106 million.
Euro appreciation led to exchange rate gains
The bank says that the Swiss franc depreciated against European currencies from January to 31 March, ” leading to exchange rate gains, especially on euro holdings. A depreciation in the US dollar and the yen, however, meant that the overall exchange rate gain amounted to CHF 2.4 billion. A slight rise in interest rates depressed prices of interest-bearing instruments by CHF 2.9 billion. Interest income on these securities of CHF 1.4 billion and price gains on equity securities of CHF 0.6 billion were not sufficient to offset the fall in prices.”
Gold contributed little, UBS loan repayments reduce risk
Holenweger case tests tougher anti-corruption laws in country already considered one of world’s best at fighting bribery
Ed. note: AP (here, picked up by Business Week) late Saturday published a second, lengthy article about the implications of the case, which provides a balanced picture
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The case against former high-flying Tempus Bank executive Oskar Holenweger in Bellinzona, Ticino, in Switzerland’s Criminal High Court, ended Friday 15 April, with the judge’s decision expected 21 April.
The charges of setting up funds for French company Alstom to bribe foreign officials, against the friend of right-wing political leader Christoph Blocher, drew less international media attention Friday than did Switzerland’s reputation, based on an incorrect report that until 10 years ago Switzerland had no law against bribery.
Source: 2010 Transparency International report on perceived transparency and accountability for corruption (click on image to view larger)
Headlines of “Switzerland stakes its reputation on …” imply that the country has until recently done little to fight bribery, when the opposite is true: Switzerland in 2006 was named the top country in the world for fighting bribery, in a ranking by Transparency International.
The group’s 2009 report on progress (pdf) made by the 38 countries signatory to the 1997 OECD Convention on Bribery shows that only four actively enforce it, one of which is Switzerland.
And in its 2010 report on international perceptions of transparency and accountability, Switzerland and Australia shared 8th place with notes of 8.7 out of a possible 10, although Switzerland’s score slipped from 9 the previous year.
Media reports say, wrongly, that bribery was legal in Switzerland until 10 years ago
The implication that Switzerland is weak in this area is unfortunately based on a misunderstanding, reported by Associated Press (AP) and widely disseminated via the Internet by AP’s largely North American member newspapers, including Yahoo News.
Even Maclean‘s, the respected Canadian news magazine, picked up the AP sentence: “Prosecutors hope the high profile trial of a Zurich private banker that ended Friday will send a message to Europe and beyond: Switzerland — where bribery was legal until a decade ago — is getting tough on corruption.”
Forbes was one of the rare AP clients to run a shorter version of the AP story, with the editors opting to leave out the misleading sentence, although it, too, picked up the “Swiss reputation at issue” headline.
Bribery was not legal in Switzerland: what changed in 2000, when the OECD’s 1997 Convention on Combating Bribery entered into force in Switzerland was the first of three key stages to tighten legislation.
The crime, previously punishable by fines, became a criminal level offense, punishable by time in prison as well as a fine. The difference is comparable to that in Switzerland between tax avoidance, a non-criminal offense subject to fines, and criminal tax evasion, with the risk of prison.
Responsibility for complex corruption cases involving bribery of foreign officials was shifted from cantonal governments to the federal government.
Significantly, before 2000, a bribery case would generally go before the courts only if a victim filed charges; as a criminal offense, police and other authorities have for the past decade been required to pursue suspected criminals and press charges.
In a second stage, companies became criminally liable in 2003, not just individuals.
A third stage involved tightening accounting requirements for greater transparency.
Switzerland has been slowly but steadily building up its tool kit against corruption since 2006, based in part on recommendations from the OECD and Transparency International.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ofcom, the communications arm of the Swiss government, is the first federal department to offer e-bills with e-payment details provided directly to your bank account, ready for your approval. The system went into effect 1 April.
The department is the first in the federal system to offer the easier, faster and less error-prone complete payment system, but other government offices will soon follow and the entire federal billing system will include e-billing by the end of 2012, making a paper-free payment system possible.
The new bills (sample: Faktura_FR, pdf, in French) eliminate the e-banking need to fill in lengthy data such as reference numbers, client account numbers and amounts. The information is provided and the person paying simply approves payment and decides on the date. The bills can be sent to your bank’s e-banking system and from there to you, or they can be sent to your accounting department.
Libyan crisis brings foreign minister to UNHRC meeting
US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe speaking with the press 25 February 2011 during the Special Session of the Human Rights Council on Libya. (photo, US Mission, Eric Bridiers)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are both attending the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva starting Monday and a plenary session of the Conference of Disarmament. Russian media reported Sunday that the Americans and Russians were discussing the possibility of a bilateral meeting between the two on the sidelines of these sessions.
The two met in Munich in early February to exchange the Instruments of Ratification that put the new Start treaty into place.
The situation in the Middle East and in Libya in particular are expected to be the focus of any bilateral meeting, which Itar-Tass reports was initiated by the Americans.
Lavrov will address the UNHRC, the first time a Russian foreign minister will address the council. Itar-Tass reports that “Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, when commenting on Lavrov’s upcoming trip, said, ‘While in Geneva, Lavrov will hold talks at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.’” He is reportedly scheduled to meet Swiss President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey Tuesday.
The UNHRC last week recommended to the UN General Assembly that Libya be stripped of its membership in the Geneva-based body, for gross abuse of human rights.
Links to other sites: Itar-Tass, Ria Novosti, The Voice of Russia, US Mission in Geneva
First 4,600 of 30,000 Chinese evacuated, citing threats and violence towards them
Libyan rights group in Geneva reports wounded in hospitals have been executed
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tunisians have been streaming over the border from Libya as violence there continues, joined by growing numbers of people from other countries, reports the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) Thursday 24 February. The group has voiced concerns about the very few sub-Saharan Africans or Asians leaving Libya, despite the large number employed there, saying it fears for their safety.
The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) says Tunisia and Egypt have both agreed to keep their borders open to people fleeing the violence in Libya. It is working with the Ministry of Defense in Tunisia to set up a camp for the 10,000 people expected to cross the border this weekend.
China announced Thursday evening that 4,600 Chinese have been evacuated from Libya, the largest evacuation ever by Chinese authorities, and the start of efforts to get some 30,000 Chinese nationals “out of the riot-torn country”. Xinhua, the government news agency, quotes one of the first workers who arrived Thursday morning in Shanghai, Xie Guangfu, as saying “‘The situation is very critical there. People broke into houses, threatening and robbing us with knives and guns.’”
The IOM in Geneva says that 6,700 Tunisians have fled across the Ras Adjir border point in three days and large numbers of Egyptian and Chinese migrant workers arrived at the border Tuesday night. “Some 850 Egyptians are today travelling onwards to Djerba airport accompanied by IOM staff and Red Crescent volunteers. Two planes sent by the Egyptian government will transport them home,” the IOM said in a statement.
Some 830 Chinese workers arrived on buses rented by the Chinese consulate in Tripoli, and from there they were taken to Tunis.
“IOM staff say that those arriving at the border are mainly coming from Tripoli. They include embassy staff and the ambassadors of various countries, who have decided to quit the capital. But they are concerned that there is no evidence of large numbers of migrant workers from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia leaving Libya for either Tunisia or Egypt.
“Large numbers of Sub-Saharan irregular migrants in Libya work informally in the service sector or as manual labour. Poorly paid and in irregular work, it is unlikely they have the resources to rent vehicles to get to border areas and reach safety. ‘Of the tens of thousands of Sub-Saharan Africans and South Asians working in Libya, only a handful have managed to reach the border so far. This is probably because they do not have the resources to pay for transport,’ says Laurence Hart, IOM’s Chief of Mission for Libya.”
Hospital executions in Tripoli, says human rights group
Geneva newspaper Le Temps reports Thursday evening that the Libyan Human Rights League, based in Geneva because of a ban on independent organizations, has received information that protesters who were taken to hospitals in Libya with injuries have been executed and doctors who object are being threatened.
Ice hockey in Geneva, not always smooth sailing
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) has snapped back at unnamed critics who, say the club owners, have been making damaging and incorrect innuendos that the GSHC is not transparent about its finances and that recent changes have caused problems with the team.
The city and canton have been slow to move on projects agreed to in 2010 to renovate the existing Vernets ice rink, before building a new arena for 2015, says the club.
20 minutes 17 February quoted Socialist Rémy Pagani, head of Geneva’s buildings and construction department, as saying that “At the moment the club’s project, which is supported by the city for a cost of CHF14 million, is stuck in the finance commission because the club has not yet presented its accounts.”
Simon Brandt, a centre-right Geneva politician, a week earlier accused Pagani of making empty promises to the club, saying it had nothing to worry about because Geneva would support it, even though the project doesn’t appear in the budget.
A meeting 8 March between the club, the city and the canton must see these projects move ahead, GSHC says, in order for its finances to become healthier: the club needs more VIP seats to be able to pull in additional revenues from these.
Chris McSorley and Hugh Quennec, the two Geneva-Servette owners, sent out to journalists a lengthy press release 17 February stating their position: the club’s accounts have been completely open to Geneva auditors, they insist, the Foundation’s finances are managed separately from the club’s and no players have been paid out of the foundation’s money, responding to accusations that have been made, mainly in Geneva’s political arena.
The complete release, in French, is below.
It shines a light on the murky side of Geneva politics as much as on the club’s business. McSorley told GenevaLunch in October that while relations with the city and canton are good, the process of getting and keeping essential financial support is not always easy. This becomes clear in Thursday’s statement, where McSorley and Quennec note that:
- work agreed foreseen in June 2010 agreements with Geneva have not been carried out. As a result, the club’s CHF3 million deficit has not diminished, despite strong demand for VIP seats.
- Work planned for 2011, including work not done in 2010: GSHC has received no confirmation about when work will begin.
- The new arena for 2015: the club is still waiting, despite the June 2010 agreement that the Vernet site will be used, for the credits to be approved and deposited to carry out the studies necessary to move the project ahead.
GSHC press release, 17 February 2011
Le Temps and NZZ will be publishing US cables on Switzerland, from WikiLeaks
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss newspapers Le Temps (registration required) and NZZ will publish, in French and in German starting next week, selected cables from the 5,814 that WikiLeaks collected. The two negotiated an agreement to receive the entire collection and several journalists from the two publications are meeting this weekend to determine which to publish.
The cables cover the period from 1978 to 28 February 2010.
Le Temps explains its decision: “It normally takes several decades for the reality, on which we want to shed some light, to surface.
Thomas Déruns
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chris McSorley’s message Monday 31 January to his team and supporters was grim: the acclaimed top forward for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, Thomas Déruns, 28 and Swiss, is moving to Bern. By Tuesday the club’s site sported a video that drew a large number of fans, with teammates’ reactions to Thomas leaving.
Déruns has been “one of its key players” for some 10 years, says McSorley, but the GSHC was obliged to let him move to SC Bern “in order to reduce the structural deficit of the club in the short and medium term if it cannot balance its budget which is amongst the four smallest of the League.” The player “has been in a position to negotiate a new contract for four or five seasons in the last few months,” McSorley’s statement notes. “The GSHC is no longer able in its current situation, to match the offers made by other clubs of the LNA (national league A).”
GSHC’s tight budget looked like it would get help from Geneva in the form of an improved and enlarged arena before the current 2010-2011 season opened, which would have let the team sell more VIP seats and get more sponsors. McSorley, who has been careful to speak well of Geneva authorities’ efforts to improve the aging (1958) Vernets arena, which has been in the political hot seat in Geneva politics, issued these remarks in a statement published on the team’s web site Monday:
UN Flag
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 65 countries of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament are meeting in Geneva this week, with one big item on the agenda. It’s the same one that’s been there for 15 years: how to start the talks again. The CD has been notoriously stalled since 1996, but it remains what US Ambassador Rose Gottemoeller referred to as the “only standing multilateral negotiating forum for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation agreements,” noting that as such “It remains a vital institution for all of us.”
One of the first speakers when the conference opened Tuesday 25 January was Pakistan’s Ambassador Zamir Akram. Pakistan, he said, is more firmly than ever determined not to agree to negotiations on an FMCT (Fissile Material Cutoff Treat) because major powers continue to allow a waiver to “our neighbour”, a not very veiled reference to India, that “will further accent the asymmetry in fissile materials stockpiles in the region, to the detriment of Pakistan’s security interests.”
Fissile material is necessary to build nuclear bombs.
Gottemoeller, came down hard on Pakistan, albeit barely indirectly, in her presentation to the group Thursday.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – An employee of Credit Suisse was jailed some time ago for suspicion of selling stolen data from his bank to German tax authorities, Tages Anzeiger reports.
According to TSR, which has picked up the story, a straw man, or intermediary, initially suspected and arrested in 2010, hung himself in his prison cell in Bern. Details remain sketchy, however, but it appears that the men were traced after a German lawyer accidentally included some information about them in correspondence with lawyers for customers of the bank whose names were on the CDs with the stolen data.
