Switzerland

A Swiss citizen pleaded guilty on Thursday this week for conspiring to defraud the U.S government while she was working at Credit Suisse.
Susanne D. Ruegg Meier admitted to a Virginia court that while working at Credit Suisse’s North American desk in Switzerland from 2002 to 2011, she aided and conspired to help U.S taxpayers evade paying taxes on their incomes. She did this by concealing the earnings and assets of potential taxpayers in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Swatch Group on Friday painted a brighter outlook for rest of the year as the world’s largest watchmaker said conditions for Swiss timepieces in China and Europe were improving.

The swiss watchmaker said it expected "very positive growth in local currency" for the rest of 2017 after net profit rose 7.2% in the first six months of the year.

On Thursday, Italy’s tax police (GdF) have asked the Swiss authorities for information regarding Italians that deposited a total of €6.7 billion ($8 billion) in the country.

The police said in a statement the move, which concerned Italian citizens holding 9,953 financial positions in Switzerland, followed an investigation that last year led to a tax settlement deal between Italy and Credit Suisse.

The tax investigation started in 2014, which didn’t involved the local branch. Then in 2015 the second part of investigation startd and it was over an alleged fraudulent system used by the bank to transfer money offshore, mainly through the use of insurance policies.

Switzerland invested the most money in the European Union (“the EU”) in 2016. With €55 billion, it was ahead of the United States (“the US”), which invested some €54 billion in the EU.

Globally, EU foreign investments fell by 41% last year. They went from a total of €476 billion in 2015 to €280 billion in 2016. This is according to an initial estimate by the European statistical institute, Eurostat, published on Tuesday.

Net immigration to Switzerland from the European Union has fallen to its lowest level for 12 years, continuing a steady decline in immigration from nearby countries.

Nearly 6,480 more EU citizens settled in Switzerland than departed between April and June, according to data released on Monday by the State Secretariat for Migration, the lowest since the second quarter of 2005.

On Monday, representatives for Switzerland and Singapore signed a bilateral deal to exchange data from 2019, pending approval from Swiss parliament for the deal. The two offshore centers, which have maintained extremely close ties in recent years, also signed a pact to cooperate even more closely on financial services.

Under the agreement, Switzerland will automatically exchange with the Singapore financial account information of accounts in Switzerland held by Singapore tax residents while Singapore will automatically exchange with Switzerland financial account information of accounts in Singapore held by Swiss tax residents. The agreement would apply from January 1, 2018, with the first exchange of data in 2019.

Switzerland and Indonesia launched an economic cooperation and development strategy for the 2017-2020 period on Friday, renewing the European country’s commitment to support economic development in the archipelago for the next four years. The offer was launched during Schneider-Ammann’s two-day visit to Indonesia.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said that the two countries saw a sizable bilateral trade improvement in the past three years at 238 percent.

Switzerland has earmarked an amount of $80 million to support the enhanced competitiveness of Ghanaian enterprises in the global market space, as well as help in government’s efforts at diversifying the Ghanaian economy.
Ghana has been classified by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) as a priority country for economic development, resulting in the signing of the Swiss co-operation strategy for Ghana.