Swiss banking giant UBS AG to cut about 10,000 jobs worldwide

 

Swiss banking giant UBS has announced plans to slash some 10,000 jobs worldwide

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/30/269503/swiss-banking-giant-to-cut-10000-jobs/

The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS AG, has announced plans to cut about 10,000 jobs worldwide, as the economic crisis in the European country continues to worsen.

"This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people. Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect,” UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in a statement released on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the decision is part of a restructuring plan devised in response to the global economic downturn and the European financial crisis.

Reports say that the Zurich-based bank aims to save over three billion dollars until the end of 2015.

The bank has also posted a net loss of 2.3 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2012.

Since the beginning of the financial crisis in Europe, UBS which employs more than 63,000 people, has been hit by billions of dollars in trading losses, management mishaps and scandals.

Last year, the Swiss bank said it would cut only 5 percent of its workforce, or about 3,500 jobs. It also appointed new executives that have promised to emphasize the bank’s wealth management business and decrease its capital markets activities.

Europe plunged into the financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.

The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.

Switzerland arming in preparation for European meltdown?

 

Members of Switzerland's Army Forces (Reuters / Thomas Hodel)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/switzerland-prepares-europe-unrest-263/

The Swiss Army is preparing contingency plans for violent unrest across Europe. A nation mostly famous for its banks, watches and chocolate fears it may face a massive influx of European refugees in the near future.

One of the world’s richest nations openly expressed concerns over the possible outcome of Europe’s continuing financial troubles, and is currently conducting army exercises against the possibility of riots along its borders.

In September, the Swiss military conducted exercises dubbed ‘Stabilo Due,’ with scenarios involving violent instability across the EU.

Switzerland has maintained an avowedly neutral stance for decades, and refused to join the eurozone when presented with the opportunity.

Bern’s biggest fear is likely the disorganization of neighboring nations’ armies that would follow general instability; the eurozone crisis and the severe austerity measures in the EU are forcing member-states to significantly slash their military budgets. If protest continues to spread across Europe, police and armed forces may find themselves ill-equipped to manage the unrest.

"I will not rule out that we will need the army in the coming years,” Swiss Defense Minister Ueli Maurer said last Sunday.

The Swiss Defense Ministry has pressed ahead to modernize the country’s army despite political opposition. With its multibillion-Franc military budget and an army of around 200,000 soldiers, the country also plans to purchase new ‘Saab Gripen’ jet fighters.

“Minister Maurer, accompanied by whispers from the top uniformed leadership in Switzerland, is trying to raise awareness that Europe’s massive fiscal-cum-political crisis could get very unpleasant,” John R. Schindler, a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College wrote in an article for the XX Committee website.

The Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces, Lieutenant General André Blattmann, likewise revealed plans to deploy an additional four battalions of military police (1,600 soldiers) to protect strategic points across the country. Blattmann is expected to present the plan in December.

Professor Schindler predicts that, “if the next Anders Brievik were to target Muslims, not fellow Europeans, things could get unimaginably ugly very quickly,” which could trigger widespread Muslim uprisings in Europe.

Switzerland, however, stands in stark opposition to the multicultural policies and thinking now common in other European nations. In 2009, Switzerland passed a national referendum banning the construction of Islamic mosques.

And while the global economic crisis has forced several European nations to cut military expenditures, Switzerland has maintained relatively consistent levels of defense spending.

 

Swiss banks to lose hundreds of billions of dollars after tax scandal

 

Reuters / Christian Charisius

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/business/news/ubs-secrecy-banking-clients-flee-305/

Swiss banks could see European clients withdraw "hundreds of billions of francs" as a result of bank measures to stop foreigners using secret accounts to evade taxes, says UBS.

­Switzerland's biggest bank alone could see up to $32 billion, or more than 10% of the total European assets under management flee from the bank, says Juerg Zeltner, head of UBS wealth management.

"As a consequence of the realignment of the financial center and the planned withholding tax, we assume that hundreds of billions of francs will flow out of Switzerland," he told the Schweizer Bank magazine. "In the offshore business with European customers, I assume we will have to live with significant outflows of wealth for quite a long time yet."

Swiss bank secrecy has helped the country build a $2 trillion offshore financial center dominated by UBS and Credit Suisse. However, in recent years they have been heavily criticized as cash-strapped governments elsewhere have sought to fight tax evasion.

The toughening of the disclosure policy follows the landmark tax-dodging case against UBS which saw a whistleblower win a record $104 million reward from US authorities. In 2009 the Swiss bank paid $780 million in fines, penalties, interest and restitution to settle charges that it helped 17,000 US clients hide $20 billion.

US authorities are still investigating other Swiss banks.

Zeltner's gloomy predictions come just days after Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second biggest bank, said it expected clients in Western Europe to withdraw up to $37 billion in the next few years due to pressure from the tax issue.
With their unique secrecy practices increasingly under attack, Swiss banks are looking for a new magnet to attract wealthy foreign clients.

"Banking secrecy is no longer there. That's gone. It is over," international wealth management consultant Osmond Plummer told a gathering of Swiss bankers in Geneva last week.

The banks' vow of silence was so attractive to rich foreigners eager to avoid taxation at home that they didn't mind that their accounts did not generate any income. “The income of the account goes to the bank. The client has no income," Plummer said.

In an attempt to win back wealthy clients Switzerland struck deals with Britain and Austria to tax their citizens’ accounts and are hoping for accords with Italy and Greece.

According to the agreements, foreigners with non-declared funds in Switzerland keep their anonymity, but their assets are taxed by Switzerland, which in turn transfers the revenues to their country of origin. However, the deal with the biggest market in Europe- Germany – is pending, as it faces opposition from Social Democrats who see it as too lenient on tax evaders.

Swiss journalist censures Tel Aviv regime, angers Israeli diplomat

Israeli Ambassador to Switzerland Yigal Caspi

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/30/253451/swiss-journalist-angers-israeli-diplomat/

A Swiss journalist has angered the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland by censuring the Tel Aviv regime for its occupation of Palestine.

The journalist, Jon Mettler, with the Berner Zeitung daily, recently interviewed Yigal Caspi and asked him whether he admitted to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Israeli regime.

Caspi expressed extreme discontent with the question and quickly accused the journalist of ‘practicing anti-Semitism,’ to which the journalist responded by asking whether the accusation meant that no criticism of the Israeli regime was allowed.

The Israeli diplomat said he ‘had problems with criticism which sought to weaken the Tel Aviv regime.’

Caspi was also asked about a recent decision by Migros, one of Switzerland's largest retailing companies and the country’s largest supermarket chain and largest employer, to boycott products made by Israel. In response, he said such moves would be ‘counter-productive.’

The Swiss journalist also brought up the subject of Iran’s nuclear energy program during the interview. The Israeli envoy stated that the West would not tolerate a ‘situation in which Iran would have control over the Persian Gulf and consequently determine the oil prices.’
Caspi refused to answer a final question on the issue of Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran refutes such allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Unlike Iran, Israel is a non-signatory to the NPT and continues to defy international calls to join the treaty.
The Israeli regime, which is widely believed to possess between 200 to 400 nuclear warheads, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear work

Governmental racism rises across EU

Roma women and children in a Lyon camp who stand to be expelled
under Nicolas Sarkozy's proposals

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139884.html

Governmental hostility towards ethnic and religious minorities across Europe is on the rise, undermining the values upon which the European Union is founded.

The new discriminatory wave mocks the words of EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is based on "human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity."

In the United Kingdom, under the 2003 European Arrest Warrant Act, people can be held and extradited on a charge that is not even a crime.

The warrant can be issued against any person by the prosecuting authorities of any EU country.

The defendants are often held in British custody. Sometimes they are held for months until their appeals against extradition are dismissed -- as they almost always are.

Britain's Home Office has predicted that the number of Europeans held for extradition by British police will likely go up 70 percent in 2011.

In Italy, from the prime minister down, politicians have all united in scorning "irregular third-country citizens and nomads" in a manner that has appeared to legitimize acts of discrimination and violence.

In July, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a "declaration of state of emergency" which justifies extraordinary measures, including fingerprinting and photographing Roma people and other immigrants, including children.

In France, criticism piles up against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to expel hundreds of Roma gypsies and shut down some 300 Roma camps in the country within the next few months.

Most of the new gypsy arrivals in France are from Romania and Bulgaria, which are EU member states, whose citizens are ostensibly entitled to freedom of movement and residence throughout the Union.

However, Roma people live on the margins of a mostly hostile mainstream society in poor standards of housing, healthcare and education.

A wave of governmental anti-Islamic tactics has also been observed across the European Union.

Earlier this summer, by a vote of 335 to 1, France's lower house of parliament approved a ban on wearing face-covering veils in public. There have been attempts to enact similar bans in Belgium and Spain.

The EU has already allowed France, among other states, to ban religious headgear in schools and universities.

Perhaps the most stunning demonstration of Europe's growing anxiety about diversity came in Switzerland, which has long prided itself as a haven for refugees.

In a referendum last November, Swiss voters imposed a constitutional ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques. This is while Switzerland has only four minarets and Muslims make up roughly 5 percent of the population.