Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - UBS shares briefly slipped to an all-time low of CHF13.88 Monday after it announced its new compensation package, with no bonuses for bank officials in 2008 and stricter rules for the future.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, is operating in the black again, with a third-quarter net profit of CHF296 million, “attributable to shareholders,” in line with its pre-announcement in mid-October.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Credit Suisse Group is confirming Q3 losses in line with the announcement made on 16 October.
Bern, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) - Swiss authorities say they are “zen” about new attacks this week on the Swiss tax system by the German and French finance ministers, meeting in Paris.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Members of the Swiss cabinet, the Federal Council, appear to be on the attack against high salaries and bonuses in Switzerland, particularly in the banking industry.
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) - The Swiss Socialist Party is offering Parliament a plan with two options to counter the government’s rescue package for UBS, the country’s largest bank.
Bern and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two days after the Swiss federal government announced a plan to help the Swiss banking system, and in particular UBS, it’s becoming clearer that this was not just a precautionary action, but that the bank needed help.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss stock market, like other major markets, opened lower this morning and prices continued to fall, with analysts saying the markets are trying to find the right balance.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss SMI stock market index has rebounded with the largest single-day gain in its 20-year history Monday, in line with strong surges in markets throughout the world. Credit Suisse rose 28%, one of the stars of the day and both it and UBS rose strongly Tuesday. Gains continued worldwide Tuesday, but more moderately, with markets given a strong boost by news that key central banks will flood the market with US dollars, easing the credit crunch for banks and thus helping to revive confidence and reduce money-market rates.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss bank account holders have had little reason in the past to ask how exactly the deposit protection system work: the last bank failing was in 1991, a small savings bank in Thun. The system is in fact straightforward.
Updated 14:00
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - European markets reacted badly to weekend news that banks in Ireland, then Denmark and Austria are providing guarantees to savers, seeing it as a sign of a deepening financial crisis. Shares fell more than 5% during the morning on several markets, with Moscow suspending trading late in the morning for an hour when share prices dropped 7.60% and 9.60% in 20 minutes on the RTS and Micex indexes; oils prices also fell (TSR, Fre and Bloomberg) .
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) - The Swiss Federal Council Thursday reassured the public that Swiss banks are relatively solid, with higher capital requirements than the coverge called for by international standards.
Updated 09:42
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - UBS announced Friday morning, following its Extraordinary General Meeting Thursday, that as part of its efforts to get the bank back to profitability it is cutting 2,000 jobs in its investment banking business, part of a “recalibration to the market environment.”
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two of the four new members of the UBS 12-member board are Americans: William Parrett, former CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Sally Bott, Group human resources director at BP (British Petroleum).
Peter Kurer, chairman, UBS
Updated, 12:25
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Shares in UBS rose 7% when the market opened in Zurich this morning, folowing an announcement by UBS that it expects to have a small profit for the third quarter of 2008 and to be profitable for the whole of 2009.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) - Credit Suisse, while insisting that it carries no responsibility for the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers earlier in September, is reportedly offering to reimburse some of its clients who invested in the US bank’s products, but with strict limitations.
Zurich, Switzerland (Financial Times) - The FT reports that Credit Suisse will announce Thursday a “strategic alliance” with the consulting firm Gerson Lehman Group, which will allow the bank’s analysts to work with reports from Gerson Lehman’s network of 200,000 councils of experts in industry. The group is known for its eight councils that cover dozens of industries.
