Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss bank UBS moved back into profitability in 2010, ending the year with net profits of CHF7.2 billion, a turnaround from 2009 when it had a loss of CHF2.7b, and the first time since 2006 that the bank has been profitable for a full year.
The bank published its Q4 and 2010 results Tuesday 8 February.
A significant change is that the bank has begun to attract new money, after a period of outflows in the wake of the bank’s bailout by the Swiss government in December 2008, but also the bank’s problems with the IRS, the US tax authority. The US Treasury dropped charges against UBS in October 2010, after a review of more than 4,000 accounts by Swiss authorities under a US-Swiss treaty.
Net new money was CHF7.1b in the last quarter of the year, the second quarter in a row with a net inflow.
One less place to change in a hurry - Swisscom to close phone booths
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swisscom wants to close down little-used phonebooths around Switzerland, reports Swiss-German weekly Sonntagszeitung. There are still about 8,100 phone booths on public land, but many are not used more than once or twice a week. This is down from 12,900 in 1998, when Swisscom was still legally obliged to maintain at least one phone booth in each commune, no longer the case.
