Switzerland

Switzerland to sign free trade agreement with China

"Switzerland has reached an agreement on details of a free-trade pact with China and expects to sign a deal in coming months, the country's economy minister said on Wednesday. 'What we currently have is a deal at the technical level,' Johann Schneider-Ammann told a news conference in Berne. He said exact details of the agreement would be given once it has been signed in the next few months. China is Switzerland's third biggest trading partner after the European Union and the United States, and the pact covers industry as well as agriculture. More details may emerge when China's Premier Li Keqiang visits Switzerland next week." Continue reading →

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Spain refuses to extradite Swiss bank data ‘thief’

"A Spanish court refused on Wednesday to extradite a former HSBC bank employee to Switzerland where he is wanted for allegedly stealing data that exposed thousands of suspected tax dodgers. Hervé Falciani, a 40-year-old French-Italian, was arrested in Barcelona in July 2012 after he arrived by boat from France. Switzerland asked for Falciani to be extradited to face charges of violating Swiss banking secrecy laws and revealing industrial secrets. Spanish prosecutors had opposed Falciani's extradition on the grounds that he was helping authorities investigate tax fraud and because banking secrecy was abolished in Spain in 1977." Continue reading →

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A Solar-Powered Plane Travels Light

"In 2003, Piccard approached European companies to sponsor what has become a $148 million project and began assembling a team of 80 engineers and technicians plucked largely from Swiss universities. After seven years of tinkering, they arrived at a machine with a deceptively simple design: Solar Impulse—with its sleek, clean lines, white-gloss finish and rakishly angled 208-foot wings (bent to increase the plane's stability)—resembles what you might get had Steve Jobs reimagined a child's balsa-wood glider in giant form." Continue reading →

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Geneva unveils wireless electric bus technology

"A revolutionary new electric bus that operates without overhead wires will begin operating in Geneva next month. The bus was developed by a public-private consortium including ABB Sécheron, the Geneva public transport authority (TPG) and SIG, the canton of Geneva’s utility company and supplier of electricity. The articulated bus works on a flash system that allows it to be recharged in 15 seconds at every stop with an overhead device that delivers 400 kilowatts of electricity. The vehicle is capable of storing enough energy to operate between stops, the consortium said." Continue reading →

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Lying Swiss Bankers Have Trapped American Clients: “Sell Your Gold. Now.”

"Approximately five weeks ago, I was notified by my bank in Geneva that they would no longer be providing private banking services to clients in the United States and Canada. After looking at the options for the liquidation of a portfolio that consisted of about 80% physical gold bullion, I made the request to take physical possession. I have certificates for each bar purchased over a period of two years but was told this morning that they would not permit me to take physical delivery. I had previously been assured that physical delivery was possible but since they have decided to close out these accounts, my previous representative has left the bank." Continue reading →

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Swiss solar-powered plane to make first cross-US flight

"An innovative solar-powered aircraft is set to launch Friday from California on a flight across the United States, the first of its kind aiming to showcase what is possible without fossil fuels. The experimental Solar Impulse plane -- with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but the weight of a small car -- bears 12,000 solar cells. By day, the cells power the plane's electric motors while also charging batteries, so the plane, unlike other solar aircraft, can keep flying all night. The project was launched more than a decade ago, after inveterate adventurer Bertrand Piccard, 54, nearly ran out of fuel on his historic non-stop round-the-world balloon flight." Continue reading →

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U.S. officials arrest Swiss banker on vacation

"U.S. officials have arrested a former UBS (UBSN.VX) banker working for the Swiss operations of Coutts, the private banking division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS.L), sources told Reuters. The arrest comes as U.S. authorities crack down on tax evasion and has revived Swiss bankers' fears that they could face detention if they travel to the United States and are suspected of helping people hide money in offshore accounts. Coutts notified staff in Geneva on Friday that one of its private bankers had been arrested last week when he entered the U.S. for a vacation, a source familiar with the situation said." Continue reading →

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Better “Safe Haven” – Switzerland or Canada?

"Not only is Switzerland a nation with an impossible terrain for armies, it has an army (mainly reserves) of over a million soldiers ready for action at any time in a well-trained state of readiness. Its complex of bridges and tunnels, which link it with all the different parts of Europe and allow its own people to travel through the nation, is mined with explosives that will make it impassable should it be invaded. As a result its refuge for capital is 300 years old and its banking industry 5 times the size of its own GDP stretching all over the world. It has been tried and tested in war and in peace like no other nation." Continue reading →

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Swiss banking chief tries to quell clamor about gold

"Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan won't exclude increasing the central bank's gold holdings at some point and said most of its reserves are held domestically. More than 70 percent of the SNB's 1,040 tons of gold are held in Switzerland, with about 20 percent at the Bank of England and 10 percent at the Bank of Canada, he said, for the first time disclosing where the physical assets were stored. The SNB's gold holdings are the target of a popular initiative, which demands that at least 20 percent of the central bank's assets be in the form of gold. The measure would also block the sale of such holdings and require all SNB gold to be located in Switzerland." Continue reading →

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