Corporate

The negative rates of Switzerland (-0.75%), forced down by the Central Bank to protect the franc from dangerous flare-ups against major currencies, are keeping many customers away from banks.

As Helvetia Ag told Bloomberg, keeping the cash in a box at home or at the company, costs, for each million, 1000 francs insurance, instead of one million Swiss francs in the current account has maintained an average annual cost of 7,500 francs for the customers. But the sum doesn’t include the costs of logistics or security sistems.

Volkswagen buys 16.6% stake in Navistar, American truck manufacturer, according to analysts is the first step for the spin off of the division of trucks expected next year.

The German group will thus seek to expand its presence in the American market by focusing on activities related to trucks. The two companies have been talking since early 2015, and they reached the agreement for developing new products.

apanese companies could leave the UK. The threat came directly on the table of the Chinese G20. "Japanese companies have headquarters in the United Kingdom may decide to shift their headquarters in continental Europe where EU laws will cease to be applicable in the United Kingdom". In a document published on the Foreign Ministry website Tokyo calls on the newly British Prime Minister Theresa May to act "responsibly to minimize negative impacts on the Japanese firms."

The insurance giant Axa, Belgian division, announced to the staff that by 2018 will remove 650 jobs as part of a strategic plan that aims to "focus its activities" and to "accelerate the digital transformation."
Concurrently, the company has planned investment of 200 million Euro over 5 years for the strengthening of mobile services offered, while expenditures related to logistics, IT and geographical presence will be reduced. Axa Belgique will transfer the activities of Charleroi, Leuven, Ghent and Eupen in the Antwerp offices (north), Liege (south-east) and Brussels.

September will mean mergers in banking sector? It seems the trend that appears in the market, also listening to the words of the number one Deutsche Bank, John Cryan, who, denying that Deutsche Bank is considering a merger with compatriot Commerzbank, said that "In Europe, serving more mergers in the banking sector », during a conference in Frankfurt.

The difficult situation of the European banks is plain for all to see. "Today in Europe the banks are less risky than before the financial crisis," said Cryan, "but also much less profitable."

Swiss banks have hired more staff during the first half of the year, thus reversing the trend. These additional places, however, were created abroad, while in Switzerland the number of employees has decreased.

Domestically, the Swiss banks have in fact reduced the staff by a significant 4.1%, writes the Swiss Bankers Association as a barometer of the banks published today. The 162 banks considered cut 3,454 employees in Switzerland. A major part of this decrease contributed to the foreign banks, with a reduction of 2,036 jobs, or 11.2% of its workforce. On the contrary, the Swiss banks have created over 6,700 jobs abroad.

Apple returns to the attack of the European Commission, after Tuesday’s fine that requires the company to Cupertino payment of 13 billion euro to move back taxes in Ireland. "The European legislation on taxes is maddening," said the number one Tim Cook group then called "exasperating" the EU Commission approach to State aid.

Yesterday, the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, had spoken of fury on the part of Brussels against American companies. However, Cook remains "very confident" about the outcome of the appeal against the EU decision: "I am convinced that the verdict will be overturned," he told Irish radio Rte.

The European Commission says "yes" to the merger between Wind, Italian subsidiary of the Russian group Vimpelcom, and 3Italia, which belongs to the group of Hong Kong Hutchison.

The approval, it said in a Brussels statement, shall be subject to sale of assets sufficiently to allow the entry of a new operator market. The agreement, in fact, opens the Italian market to the new French mobile operator Iliad. The parties (Three and Wind), have proposed to the committee a number of corrective measures that have finally brought the European antitrust give its approval: the sale to the new operator of a quantity of the mobile spectrum currently managed by the joint venture, sharing thousands of sites for the installation of mobile base stations (antennas) and a transient agreement that will allow Iliad to use the network of the joint venture until it has successfully opened its own.