LONDON The New Zealand dollar surged to its highest level in more than a year on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand made smaller interest rate cuts than some had expected, forcing them to unwind their bets on more aggressive easing. The RBNZ said a... More »
LONDON Swiss private bank EFG International (EFGN.S) now expects to pay 1.05 billion Swiss francs ($1.08 billion) to buy rival BSI from Grupo BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11.SA), almost 300 million francs less than previously announced. EFG hopes the BSI tie-up, origin... More »
OSLO Global warming could release radioactive waste stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp deep under Greenland’s ice caps if a thaw continues to spread in coming decades, scientists said on Friday. Camp Century was built in northwest Greenland... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO Hans Gubler is the man who knows the answers but will never tell, the keeper of secrets as well as time at Rio’s Olympic aquatics center. Gubler is the Omega man, overseeing a ‘nerve-centre’ of timing systems as a privileged insider with access ... More »
JERUSALEM Israel’s tax authority, looking to crack down on unreported capital, said on Monday it has received a list from French authorities of more than 8,000 Israeli customers that held bank accounts at the Swiss arm of HSBC. HSBC early last year acknowledge... More »
LONDON GlaxoSmithKline and Google parent Alphabet’s life sciences unit are creating a new company focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body, jump-starting a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics. Verily Life Sciences – kn... More »
LONDON The dollar crawled up on Monday after recording its poorest weekly performance in three months, while the yen edged lower after a more than 3 percent surge on a much less aggressive than expected easing package from the Bank of Japan. The greenback shed... More »
MILAN Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has secured underwriters to back a turnaround plan involving the sale of 9.2 billion euros ($10.3 billion) in bad loans and a 5 billion euros capital increase, the lender said in a statement on Friday. The country’s... More »
ORLANDO, Fla./MIAMI Florida authorities on Friday reported the first sign of local Zika transmission in the continental United States, concluding that mosquitoes likely infected four people with the virus that can cause a rare but serious birth defect. Governo... More »
NEW YORK Big U.S. brokerages are redefining the term “wealthy” in their pursuit of ever-richer clients to prop up margins eroded by historically low interest rates and growing regulatory burdens. Brokerages owned by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp and Wel... More »
ABU DHABI A solar-powered aircraft successfully completed the first fuel-free flight around the world on Tuesday, returning to Abu Dhabi after an epic 16-month voyage that demonstrated the potential of renewable energy. The plane, Solar Impulse 2, touched down... More »
SINGAPORE Singapore’s central bank said it will enhance controls against money laundering and take swift action against banks following damaging findings that financial institutions in the city-state handled money flows linked to Malaysian state fund 1MDB. “Th... More »
NEW YORK Wealthy U.S. investors are holding record cash balances out of fear that the U.S. presidential election will wreak havoc on their retirement accounts, a senior UBS Group AG (UBSG.S) executive said. Bob McCann, who chairs the Swiss bank’s Americas divi... More »
ZURICH/MOSCOW Credit Suisse plans to close its booking platform for its private banking business in Russia, the bank said on Monday, the latest move in a major restructure by Switzerland’s second-largest lender. “Credit Suisse has revised its private banking o... More »
GENEVA Scientists at Europe’s physics research center CERN are preparing to unwrap the biggest trove of data yet from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), three years after they confirmed the existence of the elusive Higgs boson. “In the life of accelerator physic... More »
ZURICH A rich trove of drawings by Alberto Giacometti and photographs of the renowned sculptor and artist has been lying in sealed storage cartons in a Swiss museum for more than two years due to a legal dispute over their rightful ownership. Swiss prosecutors... More »
ZURICH Central banks are ready to cooperate to support financial stability in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the Bank for International Settlements said on Saturday. Central bankers gathered at the organization’s global economy meeting... More »
LONDON Britain’s 2.2 million financial industry workers face years of uncertainty and the risk of thousands of job cuts after the country voted to quit the European Union, an upheaval that threatens London’s dominance of finance. The ‘Vote Leave’ campaign fron... More »
MUNICH, Germany Robots that work as assistants alongside people are set to upend the world of industrial robotics by putting automation within reach of many small and medium-sized companies for the first time, industry players said this week. Collaborative rob... More »
SINGAPORE Singapore’s central bank, which has ordered Swiss private bank BSI to close its local operations, said on Friday BSI’s appeal to a Swiss court against a decision by Switzerland’s financial watchdog has no bearing on regulatory action in Singapore. In... More »
ZURICH Russian former number one Maria Sharapova has lodged an appeal of her two-year suspension from tennis with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking to have the ban either lifted completely or reduced. Sharapova, 29, was banned by the Internatio... More »
CHICAGO A new type of cancer drug that takes the brakes off the body’s immune system has given drugmakers some remarkable wins against the deadly disease, but a top U.S. regulator says too many companies are focused on the same approach. Dr. Richard Pazdur, he... More »
DAVAO, Philippines Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte warned mining companies to “shape up”, as he signaled he would prefer ownership of mining assets to be left to local investors. He also said the incoming government may rewrite rules to limit enviro... More »
ZURICH The growing trend of protectionism worldwide is hampering cross-border consolidation in the airline industry, the chief executive of German airlines group Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Saturday. “To be honest I see protectionism around the world rising ra... More »
CHICAGO Early results from a clinical trial of Roche Holding AG cancer drugs released on Saturday suggest some promise in matching treatments based on abnormalities found in a patient’s tumor rather than the organ in which the cancer was originally detected. T... More »
GENEVA/NEW YORK With debate growing over the safety of holding the Olympics in Brazil amid the ongoing Zika virus outbreak, the World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee on Zika will meet in the coming weeks to evaluate the risks tied to going on with th... More »
LONDON The yen fell on Monday as Japan, readying to host a Group of Seven meeting, again signaled its willingness to intervene in the market, driving the currency to erase early gains made on disappointing Chinese data. Vice finance minister for international ... More »
BARCELONA Dutch teenager Max Verstappen made Formula One history as the youngest race winner on Sunday in a sensational Spanish Grand Prix that saw dominant Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide and crash out on the opening lap. Verstappen, ... More »
NEW YORK UBS AG urged a U.S. judge on Friday to reject claims that it should be held liable for $2 billion in losses that investors incurred on mortgage-backed securities issued before the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Lawyers for UBS made their closing... More »
ZURICH Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) predicted on Tuesday financial markets would remain tough, after the Swiss bank started the year with a quarterly loss for the first time since 2008 amid a major restructuring. The result, which comes as Chief Executive Tidjane Th... More »
LONDON Roche has no plans to sell its diabetes testing business, despite a pummeling in the past three years from U.S. price cuts, and the Swiss drugmaker expects the unit to return to sales growth in 2017. Roland Diggelmann, head of Roche diagnostics, said th... More »
MELBOURNE The “arrogance” of senior officials brought corruption-related turmoil to world soccer but important governance reforms could restore its credibility, according to influential sports administrator Kevan Gosper. Former International Olympic Committee ... More »
ZURICH Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) is placing asset management under the twin direction of its wealth management and Swiss banking divisions, it said on Sunday, announcing a further strategy rejig after a shake-up in October. Switzerland’s second largest bank will ... More »
Across the U.S. Farm Belt, top grain handlers have banned genetically modified crops that are not approved in all major overseas markets, shaking up a decades-old system that used the world’s biggest exporting country as a launchpad for new seeds from companie... More »
LOS ANGELES A solar-powered airplane midway through a historic bid to circle the globe completed the 10th leg of its journey on Monday, landing in Arizona after a 16-hour flight from California, the project team said. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a ca... More »
HANOVER, Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she did not favor classical “safe zones” in Syria which would need to be protected by foreign forces but believed that peace talks in Geneva could agree areas where fleeing Syrians could feel... More »
CAMBRIDGE, England AstraZeneca, working with genome pioneer Craig Venter, is launching a massive gene hunt in the most comprehensive bet yet by a pharmaceutical firm on the potential of genetic variations to unlock routes to new medicines. The initiative, anno... More »
WASHINGTON The United States is likely to see outbreaks of the Zika virus, with perhaps dozens or scores of people affected, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Sunday. The United States has se... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Treasury Department inched closer on Friday toward finalizing a rule requiring banks to identify the legal owners of shell companies, a move it hopes will help prevent illegal financial activities such as money laundering. The White House’s... More »
BRUSSELS In Athens, walls have ears. The leaking of a conference call of International Monetary Fund officials on Greece’s latest bailout review has further undermined mutual trust in fraught debt talks, embarrassed the European Commission and infuriated the I... More »
(This version of the April 4th story fixes spelling of analyst name in 13th paragraph) By Joshua Franklin ZURICH On Jan. 19, Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam contacted the head of the Swiss bank’s markets business asking for more details ab... More »
ZURICH Roche Holding AG said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review for atezolizumab for treating people with a specific type of lung cancer. The designation covers treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic ... More »
SINGAPORE Scanning a bank statement into a computer may not sound particularly high-tech, but it’s unsettling some of Asia’s private bankers. By aggregating all the monthly statements mailed to high net worth individuals on the multiple accounts they hold at d... More »
BERN/GENEVA Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to a massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients’ wealth. Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday that ... More »
SYDNEY/PANAMA CITY Tax authorities in Australia and New Zealand are probing local clients of a Panama-based law firm at the center of a massive data leak for possible tax evasion. The leak involves more than 11.5 million documents from the files of law firm Mo... More »
LONDON The dollar struggled to recover on Monday after its worst week in two months, with Friday’s strong U.S. labour market report having failed to change the market view that the Federal Reserve will only raise interest rates once this year, if at all. The g... More »
ZURICHA member of the ethics committee responsible for rooting out corruption in soccer’s governing body FIFA has himself been placed under a preliminary investigation, the watchdog said on Sunday. Juan Pedro Damiani was being investigated over a possible busi... More »
ZURICH Novartis took its campaign to invigorate sluggish sales of its new heart-failure medicine Entresto to a U.S. cardiologists meeting on Saturday, telling attendees that even clinically stable patients can benefit from the drug. Novartis, which forecasts E... More »
LONDON French drugmaker Sanofi has poached one of AstraZeneca’s top scientists to be its new research head in another high-profile departure for the British drugmaker. Sanofi said on Tuesday that Yong-Jun Liu had been appointed as head of research with effect ... More »
LONDON The dollar climbed for a fifth consecutive day against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, putting it on track for its best run of gains in almost a year, as investors moved to price in the possibility of two U.S. rate hikes this year. St Louis Fe... More »
ZURICH A slump in investment banking revenues pushed Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) to accelerate its cost-cutting plan as Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam admitted he had been unaware of trading positions that triggered more big writedowns in the first quarter. Switzerl... More »
ZURICH Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam received 18.9 million Swiss francs ($19.4 million) from the Swiss bank in 2015 even after he asked to have his bonus cut by 40 percent, according to its annual report published on Thursday. Thiam, who... More »
Juan Martin del Potro’s comeback trail will collide with Roger Federer’s after the Argentine won his opening Miami Open match against compatriot Guido Pella on Wednesday. Del Potro, playing in just his third tournament since an 11-month layoff following two le... More »
NEW YORK The dollar rose to a one-week high against a basket of currencies on Wednesday as Federal Reserve officials talked up the likelihood of more interest rates later this year, perhaps as early as April. The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the U.S. curren... More »
LONDON Currency markets were off to a relatively quiet start on Monday, stabilizing after last week’s large swings, as investors geared up for Japanese and U.S. central bank policy meetings that could provide them with fresh direction. There are also interest ... More »
LONDON Iran has managed to sell only modest volumes of oil to Europe since the lifting of sanctions seven weeks ago and several former buyers are staying away, citing legal complications and Tehran’s reluctance to sweeten terms to win back customers. Tehran ha... More »
ZURICH Authorities searched the offices of France’s soccer federation and seized documents in support of a Swiss investigation into former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said on Wednesday. The operation, carried... More »
WELLINGTON Life as an equities trader had its attractions for New Zealand Olympic rower George Bridgewater. Financial security for his young family, the ‘excitement’ of trading and living in exotic climes like Hong Kong and Singapore, both far removed from the... More »
BEIJING/SINGAPORE Global oil traders have entered into rare barter deals with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), supplying Iran with much-needed gasoline in exchange for high-quality fuel oil, after most economic sanctions against Tehran were lifted in J... More »
ZURICH Gianni Infantino opened FIFA’s new museum in his first official act as president of soccer’s governing body on Sunday and said that implementing the wide-ranging reforms passed on Friday would be his immediate priority. The 45-year-old Swiss, previously... More »
ZURICH Gianni Infantino will mark his first working day as president of soccer’s governing body on Monday by playing in a soccer match with Swiss-based FIFA employees battered for months by an unfolding corruption scandal. The match symbolizes a return to the ... More »
SYDNEY/LONDON The world’s largest miner BHP Billiton (BLT.L) (BHP.AX) is sitting on an $11 billion cash pile and what CEO Andrew Mackenzie does with the money will be a critical test of his ability to invest during the industry’s worst downturn in decades. Ann... More »
ZURICH British Member of Parliament Damian Collins used parliamentary privilege on Tuesday to accuse FIFA presidential candidate Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of taking development project funds to finance an election bid. The claims, made in a speech i... More »
FRANKFURT It doesn’t look like much, but a boxy wooden vintage Swedish footstool isn’t just a place to rest your weary feet after cross-country skiing. It is the latest competition to hedge funds or high end real estate. And that means it will cost you $17,000... More »
ZURICH Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam has asked the bank’s board to cut his 2015 bonus by between 25 percent and 50 percent, the Financial Times reported on Monday, after the bank posted a 2.94 billion Swiss franc ($2.96 billion)... More »
GENEVA Syria’s main opposition group is considering a proposal by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura that could pave the way to the delegation pressing ahead with talks after holding their first meeting with him on Sunday, a Western diplomatic source said. ... More »
WASHINGTON Barclays (BARC.L) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) have settled federal and state charges that they misled investors in their dark pools, with Barclays admitting it broke the law and agreeing to pay $70 million, federal and New York state officials said ... More »
BOSTON As 2016 shapes up to be even more unpredictable than last year, wealthy investors are planning to allocate more of their money to hedge funds focusing their bets on rates, currencies and commodities rather than stocks, a strategy which tends to fare bet... More »
LONDON The dollar struggled to gain traction on Wednesday, with investors awaiting the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting for clues whether bets on a single U.S. interest rate rise in 2016 are justified. Australia’s dollar meanwhile hit a three-week high AUD... More »
MELBOURNE Johanna Konta ground down Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai 6-4 6-1 at the Australian Open on Wednesday to become the first British woman to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam in over 30 years. Hours later, Andy Murray capped a banner day for Britain ... More »
United Airlines will allow customers who hold tickets to regions impacted by the Zika virus to postpone their trips or receive full refunds, a spokesman said on Tuesday. United, the second-largest U.S. airline by capacity, said the offer corresponds to virus-h... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for the rapid development of tests, vaccines and treatments to fight the Zika virus, following a briefing on the spread of the mosquito-transmitted disease, the White House said. The World Health Organiz... More »
DAVOS, Switzerland Central banks still have more firepower they can use to counter a slowdown in global growth, which does not change the outlook for recovery in the euro zone, European Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday. In an interview... More »
DAVOS, Switzerland Politicians and business leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps this week face an increasingly divided world, with the poor falling further behind the super-rich and political fissures in the United States, Europe and the Middle East running de... More »
ZURICH Nestle SA has agreed a partnership with Alibaba in China to grow online sales, build key brands and offer new products, the Swiss food group said on Tuesday. Nestle has introduced products including Nido milk powder, Damak chocolate and Nescafe Dolce Gu... More »
LONDON British insurer Prudential Plc (PRU.L) posted a slightly above-forecast capital ratio under new European rules and appointed a UK head as it attempts to woo investors later on Tuesday. Prudential has been a darling of investors but worries about Asian m... More »
BERLIN A task force set up by the German government to determine the ownership history of more than 1,500 art works discovered in 2012 has found that only five were wrongfully taken from Jews, drawing criticism from Jewish groups. German tax inspectors discove... More »
PARIS Sanofi boosted its presence in cancer research on Monday by signing two deals with biotech companies worth up to $1.2 billion, as the French drugmaker plays catch-up with rivals in the hot research field. Shares in French biotech group Innate Pharma, one... More »
LONDON World stocks fell to near 2-1/2 year lows on Monday as a fresh pounding for Chinese markets left Asia at a four-year trough and sent oil and commodity markets sprawling again. Europe’s main bourses saw a more steady start to the week but investors were ... More »
SHANGHAI Swiss bank UBS AG plans to more than double the number of staff at its China wealth management teams over the next five years, said Kathryn Shih, Asia pacific president at the bank, in an interview with Reuters on Monday. Shih said market volatility w... More »
MELBOURNE Finally clinching an elusive Australian Open crown is Andy Murray’s number one goal for the new year but the Briton concedes that his hopes of success at Melbourne Park may rest on champion Novak Djokovic having an off-day. World number one Djokovic ... More »
HARARE A scorching drought in Southern Africa that led to widespread crop failure could nudge African nations to finally embrace genetically modified (GM) crops to improve harvests and reduce grain imports. The drought, which extends to South Africa, the conti... More »
ZURICH Drug companies have taken too great a share of the benefits of new drug treatments but are moving to different models involving sharing more with health systems and insurers, the head of Swiss-based Novartis was quoted saying on Sunday. “We need to tran... More »
ZURICH The Swiss Justice Ministry said it had frozen millions of Swiss francs related to world soccer body FIFA, a spokesman said on Thursday, confirming a media report. “U.S. authorities asked for documents related to 50 accounts at different banks, through w... More »
DUBAI U.N.-sponsored Yemeni peace talks in Switzerland appeared to be struggling amid differences over government demands for the release of senior officials held by the Iran-allied Houthis, sources close to the talks said on Thursday. The dispute comes amid f... More »
SAN SALVADOR El Salvador’s former soccer federation president, Reynaldo Vasquez, who is wanted in the United States in connection with a probe targeting alleged corruption in the sport, has been detained, police said on Wednesday. Earlier this month El Salvado... More »
LONDON Former world champions Red Bull and Nissan’s Infiniti premium car brand will end their Formula One partnership at the end of this year, the team said in a statement on Sunday. Infiniti, part of the Renault-Nissan alliance, have been with Red Bull since ... More »
ZURICH Novartis’ phase III study for its acute myeloid leukemia (AML) drug showed it improved overall survival by 23 percent for patients with FLT3 mutations, the Swiss drugmaker said on Sunday. Basel-based Novartis said the study was the first large controlle... More »
ZURICH Swiss drugmaker Novartis said the latest findings from a study on its newest therapy for two kinds of blood cancer track earlier results, bolstering its confidence in a 2017 U.S. regulatory submission. Novartis is testing CTL019, its investigational chi... More »
BOSTON/SINGAPORE Parents who gave their child a Kidizoom smartwatch or a VTech InnoTab tablet may have exposed them to identity theft after Hong Kong-based VTech said hackers stole the personal information of more than 6 million children. The breach underscore... More »
BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators have dropped charges against 13 banks including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank for blocking exchanges from derivatives markets, but will continue their case against data company Markit and trade body ISDA. The European Commission ... More »
ZURICH Swiss watchmaker Swatch SA, Visa Inc and Visa Europe have launched a project that lets Visa cardholders in the United States, Switzerland and Brazil make payments with Swatch’s new “pay-by-the-wrist” Swatch Bellamy watch. Set to launch in early 2016, Sw... More »
VIENNA Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding has dropped out of a high-profile project to develop an antibiotic for treating “superbug” infections, the company said on Sunday. Roche had agreed in 2013 to pay privately held partner Polyphor up to 500 million Swiss fran... More »
SHANGHAI China, already a global powerhouse in high-tech areas from solar panels to bullet trains, is turning its industrial might to the challenge of making more of its own drugs for a vast and aging population. Given the 10 years or more it typically takes t... More »
