Personal Finance

Eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world. A top corporate CEO earns as much in a year as 10,000 garment factory workers in Bangladesh. And the world’s 10 biggest corporations together have revenue greater than the 180 poorest countries combined, according to a study published Sunday by Oxfam.

The charity’s report, "An economy for the 99%", was released as global leaders and the business elite traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum; it suggests the wealth gap is wider than ever, with new data for China and India indicating that the poorest half of the world owns less than previously estimated.

Switzerland has been an attractive destination for Chinese tourists in recent years, especially due to their growing interest in winter sports according to a report by the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce. With China’s ski industry expected to grow rapidly over the next five to 10 years, there will be greater demand for trips to ski destinations such as Switzerland.

Statistics from the Swiss government show that 2015 saw a 33% increase in the number of hotel bookings by Chinese tourists. It is part of a trend that has been taking place over the past decade.

The former CEO of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn will receive, as of 2017, a pension of approximately € 1.2 million per year, or € 3,100 per day, despite the dieselgate, as reported today by the German newspaper Bild.
The Winterkorn contract, forced to step back because of emissions scandal that ran over the Vw in the US and then in Europe, is officially expired at the end of 2016, and former top manager, who has 69 years, has entitled to a hefty pension.

Family allowances paid in 2015 in Switzerland amounted to approximately CHF 5.8 billion, as announced by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The beneficiaries are 1.1 million people. The most important part (97%) consists of the benefits paid under the Federal Act on family allowances (FamZG), the note precise. The remainder comes from the Federal Law on Family Allowances (LAF) and other insurance systems (unemployment, disability).

Switzerland has been the biggest loser over the past decade in a list of the world’s 500 largest asset managers. Its share of assets under management held in the listed companies more than halved from 8.6% in 2005 to 4% last year.
The United States, on the other hand, has constantly strengthened its position and now manages 52.5% of total global assets, revealed research by Pensions & Investments/Willis Towers Watson published on Tuesday. This is up 10.6 percentage points since 2005.
Within a decade, growth in the US at Switzerland’s expense has knocked the country from third position in 2005 (behind the US and Britain) to seventh in 2015 (behind the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Canada).

SIX Payment Services and Alipay, the third-party payment and lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced their close cooperation for the acceptance of POS and E- Commerce payments across Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Alipay’s payment service will be integrated into the payment application of SIX in order to enable merchant clients of SIX to accept Alipay payments from Alipay users.

SIX currently has a customer base of 220,000 merchants locations, principally in Switzerland, Luxemburg, Austria, Germany.

The super-rich residents in Switzerland are becoming richer, as admitted by the business magazine "Bilanz": the 300 people wealthiest residents in the Confederation together have 613 billion francs (+18.6 billion compared to 2015).

The ranking continues to be headed by the Kamprad family: the children of the founder of Ikea boast, according to "Bilanz", a fortune of 45/46 billion francs, an increase of one billion a year.

Number two is the Brazilian-Swiss beer baron Jorge Lemann, who owns part of the world’s largest brewer ABInBev. His wealth fell by CHF1 billion to CHF 27-28 billion.

The average of the Swiss working moms is the highest in Europe. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), about four out of five mothers were professionally active in 2015.

According to research, if the rate of working mothers in Switzerland is so high it is due to work-generalization; moreover, in special ranking part-time women, Switzerland ranks second among European nations behind the Netherlands.

Motherhood involves the abandonment of professional activity only in one case out of seven. However it provides a series of changes, including a sharp reduction in working hours, corresponding to a working day less per week.