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Switzerland's government said Tuesday that it's ordering Credit Suisse to temporarily suspend bonuses for employees after orchestrating a plan for the No. 2 Swiss bank to be taken over by rival UBS. The Swiss Department of Finance says federal law allows the government to set remuneration-related measures in cases involving Switzerland's biggest banks. Late last week and into the weekend, authorities in Switzerland, backed by the central bank and financial regulators, scrambled to cobble together a $3.25 billion sale of Credit Suisse to UBS. An outflow of deposits and years of trouble raised fears that it could fail and trigger an international financial crisis after the collapse of two U.S. banks. The Swiss government says it doesn't plan to block bonus payments from last year that have been granted but are set to be immediately paid because it doesn't want to penalise Credit Suisse employees who did not cause the crisis. But authorities in the capital, Bern, said they will prohi
Credit Suisse's shares soared 30 per cent on Thursday after it announced it will move to shore up its finances by borrowing up to nearly USD 54 billion from the Swiss central bank, bolstering confidence as fears about the banking system moved from the US to Europe. It was a massive swing from a day earlier, when shares of Switzerland's second-largest commercial bank plunged 30 per cent on the SIX stock exchange after its biggest shareholder said it would not put more money into the Swiss lender. That dragged down other European banks after the collapse of some US banks stirred fears about the health of the global banks. Credit Suisse, which was beset by problems long before the US bank failures, said Thursday that it would exercise an option to borrow up to 50 billion francs (USD 53.7 billion) from the central bank. This additional liquidity would support Credit Suisse's core businesses and clients as Credit Suisse takes the necessary steps to create a simpler and more focused bank
India has received the fourth set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and organisations as part of an annual automatic information exchange under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries. Officials said the new details shared with India pertain to "hundreds of financial accounts", including many cases of multiple accounts associated with some individuals, corporates and trusts. They did not divulge specifics, citing the confidentiality clause of the information exchange and the adverse impact it may have on further investigations, but asserted that the data would be used extensively in probes of suspected tax evasion and other wrong doings including of money laundering and terror funding. In a statement, the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) on Monday said that the exchange of information this year saw five new additions to the list -- Albania, Brunei Darussalam, Nigeria, Peru and Turkey. The count of financial ...
Switzerland's financial markets watchdog on Thursday said it has reprimanded and set restrictions on two Swiss banks for violating their obligation to fight money laundering in connection with clients in Venezuela, notably with links to state-run oil giant PDVSA. Banca Zarattini & Co. SA and CBH Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique SA were found to have breached their duties to put in place adequate risk-management policy, which represented a serious infringement of supervisory law, the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Agency, FINMA, said in a statement. FINMA said it was in contact with more than 30 Swiss banks over alleged cases of corruption with regard to Venezuela, and in particular PDVSA. It ultimately opened enforcement proceedings the highest level of scrutiny possible at the authority and wrongdoing was found at five banks including Julius Baer and Credit Suisse. The authority said the announcement Thursday ends all enforcement proceedings against banks with regard to ...