Federal square, Bern, 19 Sept. Photo © Peter Eichenberger Berne
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some 30,000 people marched in Bern Saturday 19 September to protest against as the economic crisis and what the organizers describe as misguided government rescue measures. It was the capital’s biggest demonstration since 2003.
The only exception: DFEA (Swiss foreign affairs) employees can still visit Facebook
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The second most visited web site in Swiss government offices, a January 2009 investigation showed, was the social network Facebook. Government employees were invited to show a bit of restraint in May and they did cut back somewhat, but Facebook remains the fourth most visited site at work – and the volume of downloads has increased in most departments.
Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss president and finance minister
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz signed a new double-taxation treaty with his French counterpart, Christine Lagarde in Bern 27 August. The new treaty is the thirteenth Switzerland has signed since March, after Luxembourg and Denmark.
It brings Switzerland in line with the OECD standards for administrative assistance in cases of tax fraud, according to the Swiss government. Lagarde said in Bern that banking secrecy can no longer be used by one of the two states to refuse to provide information.
Bern and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Shares in the bank UBS rose nearly 5 percent by closing Thursday 20 August in Zurich to CHF17.56 after the Swiss government sold its 9 percent stake, 332.2 million shares (convertible notes to be converted 25 August), at a price of CHF16.50. The sale had been announced late Wednesday. In addition, UBS has agreed to pay the government CHF1.8b in cash, which waives its right to future coupons on the convertible notes.
The government has thus withdrawn its stake in the bank completely, and the initial investment of CHF6 billion in January 2009 to bail out the bank has been completely recovered, with the government making a net profit of CHF1.2b.
The eight-month investment provided an annual rate of return of more than 30 percent.
Shares up; Swiss bankers hire US lobbyist
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - It may be no more than rumour based on several unnamed sources being cited, but the financial world is now expecting the Swiss and US governments to sign on Wednesday an agreement involving Swiss bank UBS. The bank’s shares have continued to climb most of this week, reaching the level they were at in December 2008 before the bank agreed to hand some names to the IRS tax authority, in early February. UBS shares closed in Zurich at CHF16.90 Tuesday 19 August.
Once the agreement is signed by both parties, details can be released. Widespread speculation by industry observers and media has UBS delivering some 5,000 clients’ details to the IRS, but the figure could take on a new aspect with the IRS specifying Tuesday 19 August that it is now investigating for criminal activity 150 of the 252 client names provided to it by the bank in February 2009.
UBS New York headquarters
Update 2 Florida, USA; Bern and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The bell hasn’t yet quite tolled for anyone in the US court case where the IRS is asking for names of UBS bank clients. Judge Alan Gold in Miami late Friday 7 August, Swiss time, gave the two governments another week, until 12 August and at their request, to hammer out details of an out of court settlement.
Reactions were mixed, with the Financial Times reporting that “Friday’s setback caused confusion” for investors, arguing that the “failure” to reach an agreement will hurt UBS shares. Swiss media were more phlegmatic, viewing the delay as an acceptance that a resolution of several technical issues requires more time, which the judge has given.
Update 15:40 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss authorities are investigating charges by a US man, who has pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the US, that a Swiss government official was bribed to provide his lawyer with information on the UBS court case. The information purportedly indicated, incorrectly, that his name was not among the 250 that UBS would eventually gave to IRS tax authorities in the US.
Reuters notes that bribery is extremely rare in Switzerland and the accusations have prompted concern in Bern, the capital, and among banking circles. Transparency International in its latest (2008) bribe payers’ index, puts Switzerland near the top of the list of relatively corruption-clean countries.
Earlier in the day 29 July Swiss media carried a report from wire service ATS that Alan Gold, the judge in the UBS bank case in the US, has scheduled a meeting by telephone Wednesday with the US Justice Department and Switzerland, to clarify progress being made towards an out of court settlement. The two parties to the case were encouraged by the judge 13 July to explore a settlement in the case where the IRS tax authority is demanding the names of 52,000 holders of UBS bank accounts.
In related news:
- a UBS client in the US, Jeffrey Chernick of New York, Tuesday 28 July pleaded guilty to fiscal fraud, saying that a Swiss lawyer had talked him out of turning himself in and paying back taxes in October 2008. The lawyer, according to Chernick’s court statement, assured him that a Swiss government official said his name was not on a list that would be given by the bank to the IRS. The attorney told Chernick the government official was paid CHF45,000 for the information. Chernick is the third person to plead guilty to tax evasion charges, from the group of 250 whose names were given to the IRS in February. Chicago Tribune and RSR, Fre
- former head of the UBS wealth management unit in the US, Joseph Grano, says that in early 2008, before the bank’s problems with the IRS were public, he wrote to the bank’s then-chairman and president, Marcel Ospel and Marcel Rohner, suggesting they spin off the unit, but they never replied. Bloomberg
Title: The Dalai Lama in Lausanne
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: The Dalai Lama will visit Lausanne for a two-day lecture and he will speak mainly in Tibetan. The teachings will be translated into French and simultaneous translations will be available in English, German, Spanish and Italian.
In addition, two lectures will be given in the evening by Sogyal Rinpoche and Chokling Jigme Palden Rinpoche, representatives of the Buddhist tradition. (related news story in GenevaLunch)
Start Date: 04 Aug 2009
End Date: 05 Aug 2009
Washington, DC and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US federal district court judge Alan Gold, who is handling the case of the US Justice Department against Swiss bank UBS, has asked the American government to clarify its position, reports Swiss financial news agency AWP.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government will be pushing to strengthen Geneva’s role as the global centre for climate information when it participates in the Third World Climate Conference in Geneva 31 August to 4 September 2009. The conference will establish a system to improve the availability of climate information and predictions for government, the private sector, aid and other organizations.
Switzerland “considers climate information to be a key tool to strengthen society, particularly in developing countries, against the socio-economic consequences of climate change. Switzerland’s medium-term aim is to see the creation of the Global Framework for Climate Services and its embedding at the WMO (World Meteorological Organization). This would also serve to strengthen Geneva as a location for the coordination of future efforts in the dissemination of climate information,” Bern notes in a press release 25 June.
Florida, USA and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government has asked a court in Miami, Florida to reject demands by US tax authorities that Swiss bank UBS turn over information on 52,000 clients of the bank who are US citizens. The Swiss government says its amicus curiae brief explains its legal position: that the John Doe “fishing expedition” request flies in the face of international law and would oblige the Swiss bank to break Swiss law.
The government notes that the filing does not involve it, however, as a party in the case, but rather allows it to state its position, following US procedural law.
Updated 20 March 07:15 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - In a short, terse message, the Swiss federal government Thursday evening announced that the United States has dropped its request for administrative assistance in the case of UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank. The extraordinary message is linked to a request for help with 252 UBS clients’ accounts, made in July 2008, which has caused a political uproar in Switzerland and been linked to tense relations with the US in the past eight months. No reason was given for the US dropping its request, nor is there any mention of a related civil case where a US court has asked for information on an additional 52,000 accounts. The New York Times 18 March reported that the US was extending its inquiry into UBS in the civil case, citing unnamed sources it referred to as “persons briefed on the matter.” Swiss federal statement in its entirety:
St Gallen, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Hans-Rudolf Merz, Switzerland’s finance minister and federal councillor, is out of the artificially-induced coma he was placed in following cardiac surgery at the weekend. Doctors say he is in satisfactory condition, and was able to talk to them.
