Switzerland

Bitcoin startup Xapo has revealed that it has gained an early ‘conditional approval’ from Switzerland’s financial regulator (FINMA) to operate in the country.

The Switzerland-based company said in a new blog post that it has been given “conditional approval” from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to do business in the European country.

CEO Wences Casares wrote in a blog: "We are happy to announce that, after almost two years of substantial effort and investment, Xapo has received conditional approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate in Switzerland".

Johnson & Johnson will buy Swiss drugmaker Actelion in a $30 billion deal that both secures promising research and bolsters the product portfolio controlled by the U.S. health care giant.

The deal between the world’s biggest producer of healthcare goods and Actelion, a leader in medicines treating high blood pressure, will create a new Swiss-listed firm called R&D NewCo focusing on the research and development of new drugs, the two companies said in a joint statement.
The U.S. conglomerate will then buy Actelion’s seven drugs that are currently on the market and two potential treatments in late-stage testing. The acquisition gives J&J access to the Swiss group’s line-up of high-price, high-margin medicines for rare diseases, helping it diversify its drug portfolio as its biggest product.

Swiss bank UBS reported net income of 738 million Swiss francs (US$736 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with 949 million a year earlier, due in part to tax effects, but says rising investor confidence in the United States could boost its wealth management business.

"Despite a very challenging market environment in 2016, we achieved solid results, thanks to our balanced business and geographic mix, as well as our strong focus on executing our strategy," said CEO Sergio Ermotti.

UBS also recorded more than 1 billion francs in negative income due to cash-flow hedges, citing a drop in unrealized gains from hedging derivatives as long-term interest rates increased.

Switzerland’s gold exports to China surged to their highest on record in December at 158 tonnes, data from the Swiss customs bureau showed on Thursday, nearly triple the level of the same month a year earlier.

According to Eddie van der Walt as reported on the Bloomberg terminal this morning, total Swiss gold exports surged to 287.6 tons in December (valued at CHF 10.8b), their highest since May 2013 in December, according to data on the website of the Swiss Federal Customs Administration.

Gold exports to China in December “were the highest since at least January 2014” according to Bloomberg. Most of the exports to China are in the form of investment grade gold bars in the one kilogramme gold bar format which is used by Chinese investors, institutions, exchange traded funds (ETF) and indeed the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Switzerland’s foreign trade grew again in 2016 after a decline in the previous year,, with the development of chemical-pharmaceutical products, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said Thursday. Exports rose by 3.8% (real: – 0.8%) to a record high of CHF 210.7 billion. However, the two other major divisions – machines and electronics as well as watches – were unable to participate in the growth. Imports increased by 4.1% (real: + 1.2%) to CHF 173.2 billion. The surplus in the trade balance reached a new record (37.5 billion francs). Exports expanded by 3.8% (real: – 0.8%) to CHF 210.7 billion in 2016, which means that, they reached a new peak.

Swiss watch exports registered one of its shallowest falls of last year in December, yet marking a decline for the whole of 2016, figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed Thursday.

Watch exports declined 4.6% year-on-year in December to CHF 1.7 billion. Exports for the whole year tumbled 9.9 percent to CHF 19.4 billion. The annual decline is the worst performance since exports fell 22 percent in 2009 in the wake of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the subprime mortgage crisis.

Russian Railways suggests reviewing the use of Swiss francs as a settlement currency for the transit traffic, president of the company Oleg Belozerov said, as Tass agency reported.
"We calculate transit in Swiss francs. The Swiss franc has been historically used for international settlements. I asked colleagues to consider and give an assessment whether the franc is the proper currency now to make settlements," he said.

Transparency International (TI), the world’s leading anti-corruption movement, said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016 that in countries with populist or autocratic leaders, "instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems."

Based on expert opinions of public sector corruption, the annual report rated Denmark and New Zealand as the least-corrupt countries, followed by Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Norway.