The Swiss bank UBS reported a net profit of 1.165 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion) for the whole of 2017, weighed down by a writedown in the fourth quarter that related to the new U.S. tax overhaul.
The consensus from a Reuters poll was for a figure of 1.257 billion Swiss francs, below the 2016 number of 3.3 billion Swiss francs and below the 2015 figure of 6.2 billion Swiss francs.
Switzerland has established a working group tasked with investigating the possibility of regulating blockchain technology and initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country, as per a report by Reuters. The working group will be required to present a report to the government by the end of 2018.
Switzerland has banned crustacean cruelty, which means no boiling a lobster while it’s alive. On Wednesday the Swiss government announced the ban of boiling live lobsters without stunning them first, swissinfo reported.
By March 1, 2018, the government has ordained Swiss chefs will have to "stun" the crustaceans first before they drop them into the boiling hereafter. “Live crustaceans, including the lobster, may no longer be transported on ice or in ice water. Aquatic species must always be kept in their natural environment. Crustaceans must now be stunned before they are killed,” according to the new Swiss law.
Switzerland has moved a step closer to breaking free of the European Union (EU) after the government allowed proponents of a campaign to curb immigration to start canvassing public support for a referendum.
The country is not a member of the EU but currently has open borders with the bloc as a price for access to the Single Market. However, the populist Swiss Freedom Party (SVP) have been pushing for a referendum on the matter.
A latest Bloomberg survey shows economists expect Swiss National Bank (SNB) to raise rates only after the European Central Bank (ECB) begins tightening cycles. Thus, SNB is not seen raising rates before the fourth quarter of 2019.
Pakistan and Switzerland will begin exchanging information from the current month under the Convention on Avoidance of Double Taxation (ADT), as the Senate Standing Committee on Finance was informed. However, they said information exchange would only be applicable on future cases.
Fewer people migrated to Switzerland last year than at any point in the past ten years and the number of arrivals from the European Union plunged last year, the Swiss media reported Monday.
The number of European Union workers arriving in Switzerland halved last year from a peak in 2013 and net immigration from EU states stood at 30,799 in 2017, Swissinfo said, quoting the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.
The US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, stated that he’s “concerned consumers could get hurt” by using cryptocurrencies. To this he further declared that he would be working with the Group of 20 nations to prevent cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin from becoming the digital equivalent of an anonymous Swiss bank account.
Mnuchin, during an interview at the Economic Club of Washington, said that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) created a working group to examine digital currencies like bitcoin.
