Europe

The sentence to five years’ imprisonment imposed in November by the Federal Criminal Court (TPF) to Hervé Falciani is final. Former IT bank Franco-Italian HSBC could file an appeal against the judgment of Bellinzona judges who convicted of economic espionage, but did not do so, as indicated by the Federal Court (TF).

The TPF had acquitted Falciani – that was not presented at trial – from other charges, such as breach of commercial confidentiality.

Falciani had copied, from 2006 to 2008, bank details of the Geneva branch of HSBC and had later, from 2008 to 2014, made them accessible to different private companies and public bodies in different countries.

Switzerland is ranked sixth globally in terms of satisfaction of employees about their workplace. More than 78% of respondents reported to be satisfied, even a lot, while only 8% are dissatisfied; the remaining 14% does not take sides.

A position shared by the Netherlands, Spain and the United States, according to the ranking published by Randstad, a company specialized in brokerage personnel, standings led by India (84%), Mexico (83%), Austria (81%), Denmark (81 %) and Norway (81%) and sees that on the bottom of China (57%) and Japan (40%).
The employees’ first seeking employment that offers them prospects, an atmosphere of pleasant work, a fair wage as well as good social benefits and job security in the long term ", noted in a statement issued today Nathalie Zihlmann, director of human resources Randstad Switzerland, a company specialized in personal banking.

The City of Lugano has decided to act on a request agreement with Almaty in view of a network collaboration with partners active in the area. The mission’s program provides, in fact, for each company present, a series of B2B meetings with potential Kazakh partners. Considering that in Lugano there is already a significant number of activities related to Kazakhstan in the most dynamic sectors, the agreement with Almaty is a good opportunity for the promotion of Lugano worldwide and serves as a support to the development strategies already in place at regional level.

Vodafone records the first growth since 2008, on a comparable basis, revenues and earnings for the year core, supported by an increase in revenues in Europe in the fourth quarter.

In particular, the British telecommunications group posted a net loss of 3.8 billion pounds, compared to 5.86 billion for the year to 31 March 2015. Revenues are down 3% to 40.97 billion but showed an increase in organic growth of 2.3%.

Slowdown in prices in the UK and still miles away from the 2% target set by the Bank of England. After signs of recovery offered from the end of 2015, inflation slowed sharply in April, registering the first negative figure since last September.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), consumer prices recorded in April increased by 0.3% year on year, down from + 0.5% in March, being below the expectations of analysts who were for a + 0.5%.

Orascom, a company owned by Egyptian businessman Samih Sawiris, expects a loss in the first quarter of 2016 between 26 and 28 million francs. The figure represents approximately the entire loss of 2015, announced Monday the holding company that builds and operates real estate, especially in Andermatt (UR). The final figures will be announced on Thursday. In addition to the loss, we expect a decline in turnover from 17% to 20%.

French oil giant Total Monday inaugurated its new gas project in the North Sea near the Scottish Shetland Islands, whose production is providing up to 8% of British gas consumption.

This project, called Laggan Tormore-includes four subsea wells 600 meters deep and connected to a new gas processing plant built on the Shetland Islands. Launched on February 7, production reached its ceiling from 90,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent.

HSBC, one of the largest financial groups in the world, today announced that 840 jobs in IT will be transferred by the end of the year, of which at least 600 currently employed at Sheffield. These relate to a part of the cutting surface of 8,000 workers in the UK, announced in June 2015.

"As part of a global redeployment plan, approximately 840 workstations without direct contact with customers will be transferred from the UK to other sites in the world," said the CEO of HSBC for Britain John Hackett, in a statement