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☆ Opinion: The male drivers who just can’t let go of their stick shift
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Opinion Paul Hockenos | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Berlin CNN —For old-school connoisseurs of the automobile — usually men — driving means operating a beloved vehicle by touch, with three pedals underfoot and a shift stick at hand. Paul Hockenos Hayyan Al-YousoufIn Europe, this clientele is responsible for a good deal of the moaning about manual transmission’s demise. Well, Zen or not, the day of manual transmissions is speeding to an end — and this layman is shedding no tears. For one, the oft-repeated benefits of a stick shift over an automatic have been redundant now for years. The explanation: automatics select the right gear for the vehicle, usually the highest gear possible.

Persons: Paul Hockenos, ”, Paul Hockenos Hayyan, Mercedes Benz, upshift, ’ ”, Sigmund Freud, it’s, Robert M, It’s, —, “, Cristine Organizations: CNN, Berlin CNN, Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen, Swiss, Neue Zürcher, Art, Environmental Protection Agency, International Energy Agency, Toyota Locations: Berlin, Europe, New Berlin, Yousouf, Germany, New York, San Francisco, Oslo, Norway

☆ Zurich is trying to claw back $200 million after accidentally paying city employees double their salaries
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewThe city of Zurich is trying to recoup roughly 175 million Swiss Francs, about $200 million, after a technical glitch saw all city employees paid double for February, according to local reports. Soon after, the city administration was inundated with calls from puzzled workers, Tages-Anzeiger reported, with some joking that the extra money constituted an adjustment for rampant inflation. AdvertisementPoliticians, too, have received double their fees for attending parliament in February, Tages-Anzeiger reported. All 30,000 employees are being sent a letter with a QR code linking to instructions for returning the money, NZZ reported. "With 30,000 employees, there are many special cases," Claudia Naegeli, a city finance department spokesperson, told the outlet.

Persons: —, Zürcher, NZZ, Claudia Naegeli Organizations: Service, Local, Business, Swisscom, Neue Zürcher Zeitung Locations: Zurich, Local Switzerland, Tages

The Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Finance Ministry are part of the conversations with lenders, one source said. A representative for the finance ministry said that the issue of bank runs is part of an overall evaluation of the too-big-to-fail regulatory framework in Switzerland. Regulators worldwide have since been grappling with the risk of bank runs, which in the era of digital banking have accelerated in speed. Financial regulators will need to make sure that banks retain adequate financial buffers as advances in technology increase the risk of bank runs, Bank of England executive director for markets, Andrew Hauser, said on Friday at a conference in London. They risk penalizing Swiss banks if they were to be introduced only in Switzerland, one of the sources said.

Persons: SNB, Zürcher, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, Andrew Hauser, Thomas Jordan, Stefania Spezzati, Oliver Hirt, Elisa Martinuzzi, John O'Donnell, Paritosh Bansal, Nick Zieminski Organizations: UBS, Swiss National Bank, Swiss Finance Ministry, Reuters, Swiss, Raiffeisen, Credit Suisse, Regulators, Bank of England, Thomson Locations: ZURICH, Switzerland, Swiss, Zurich, U.S, London, Bern

☆ Omega says 3 former employees made a 'Frankenstein' watch that sold for a record $3.4 million: reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Omega says three former employees faked a watch it paid $3.4 million for, per Switzerland's NZZ. A representative told Bloomberg the watch was a "Frankenstein" that was made of several parts. It was bought by Omega for just over 3.1 million Swiss Francs, or about $3.4 million – a record price for a Speedmaster, per Bloomberg. But according to a statement Omega gave to Bloomberg, the watch was instead a "Frankenstein" that contained mostly authentic parts from other vintage watches. It told Bloomberg it couldn't say who brought the watch to auction.

Persons: Omega, —, Raynald Aeschlimann, NZZ, Phillips, Omega didn't Organizations: Bloomberg, Omega, Service, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Omega Museum Locations: Swiss

☆ Zürcher Kantonalbank held takeover talks with GAM Holding -FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 22 (Reuters) - Swiss lender Zurcher Kantonalbank, known locally as ZKB, has held takeover talks with GAM Holding AG (GAMH.S), the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. London-listed Liontrust Asset Management also said earlier this week that it was discussing a potential merger of its investment management unit with GAM, which is headquartered in Zurich. Swiss asset manager GAM, which has lost over 95% of its value following a bond fund scandal in 2018, is now looking to sell itself. Z Capital Group, a New York-based investment firm, is also interested in buying GAM, the newspaper added. GAM, ZKB and Z Capital did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

☆ Rivals can feast on Credit Suisse client spoils
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Credit Suisse saw 110 billion Swiss francs flying out the door in the final quarter of 2022. These outflows were chiefly cash from wealthy clients and some deposits at Credit Suisse's Swiss bank unit. Those holding accounts at both Credit Suisse and UBS may dislike too much wealth concentration. And Credit Suisse is hardly incentivised to transfer securities swiftly. The minister said this was needed because Credit Suisse customers had again withdrawn money.

☆ How to avoid the next crisis? Banks may have to hold more cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —Regulators must learn “important lessons” from this year’s banking turmoil, the world’s top financial watchdog has said. Requiring banks to hold more cash to pay out depositors may be one of them. External shocks that have roiled global markets in recent years include the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In other words, banks could be told to hold more assets that can be easily converted into cash to pay back creditors in times of crisis. In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it would guarantee all deposits held within Silicon Valley Bank, including those above $250,000 per person.

“I have argued for years that the biggest banks in the world are still too big to fail. In practice, however, the economic damage would be considerable.”Keller-Sutter was at the center of a government-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS (UBS) earlier this month. Global standards for dealing with teetering “too big to fail” banks were key a part of the package of rules introduced after the global financial crisis. They were designed to make it possible to wind down a big bank without destabilizing the financial system or exposing taxpayers to the risk of losses. The rest is lent out at higher interest rates or invested, because that’s how big banks make most of their profit.

“I have argued for years that the biggest banks in the world are still too big to fail. In practice, however, the economic damage would be considerable.”Keller-Sutter was at the center of a government-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS (UBS) earlier this month. They were designed to make it possible to wind down a big bank without destabilizing the financial system or exposing taxpayers to the risk of losses. Although some investors in Credit Suisse bonds lost everything, Swiss taxpayers are still on the hook for up to 9 billion Swiss francs ($9.8 billion) of potential losses arising from certain Credit Suisse assets. The rest is lent out at higher interest rates or invested, because that’s how big banks make most of their profit.

☆ Credit Suisse faces fateful weekend. Will UBS step up with a rescue bid?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Mark Thompson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —The fate of Credit Suisse could be decided in the next 36 hours after a torrid week for Switzerland’s second biggest bank. But by Friday, analysts were speculating that a full-blown rescue would be needed, and reports began to swirl of a possible takeover by its biggest Swiss rival, UBS (UBS). The FT said the boards of UBS and Credit Suisse were expected to meet separately over the weekend. Credit Suisse and UBS both declined to comment to Reuters. “BlackRock is not participating in any plans to acquire all or any part of Credit Suisse, and has no interest in doing so,” a BlackRock spokesperson told CNN.

☆ Russia rejects reports that U.S. offered Moscow secret Ukraine peace plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Summary This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Friday rejected as a "hoax" media reports that U.S. CIA Director William Burns had travelled to Moscow with a secret peace proposal that involved Ukraine ceding a fifth of its territory to Russia. The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung's report, which said Burns had made a secret trip to Moscow last month to put forward the plan on behalf of the White House, has also been dismissed by Washington. Asked whether Burns had travelled to Moscow or put forward a plan that involved Ukraine ceding 20% of its territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "That whole report is a hoax." Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

That's not the done thing," a senior French official said. "The goal is to make Berlin understand there's a problem," the senior French official said. We even struggled to get them to meet in person," the French official said. German officials say that they are aware they need to reduce their reliance on China, but they add that this should not mean banning all Chinese investment in Europe. read moreGerman officials say France had been invited to join but declined.

☆ Leonteq shares hammered after FT report on unusual trading activity
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The FT reported on Monday that whistleblowers have accused auditor EY of whitewashing suspicious trades, including money laundering and tax evasion in an investigation it conducted this year for Leonteq, a long-standing client. It said that investigations by Leonteq and EY found there "were no material shortcomings". At the core of the complaints reported by the FT are two trades that Leonteq created for French workers co-operative society ID Formation at the start of 2021. Since Friday's close, the shares have lost more than 24%, marking the biggest two-day drop since late 2016. "Publication of the EY report or an additional appraisal through an external auditor would provide urgently needed visibility.

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