Bank scandal, base jumping and rip-offs

Politicians are debating whether to ban the dangerous sport of base jumping in Switzerland. Keystone

Almost every article published by swissinfo.ch contains a percentage, an age, an amount of money or some other figure. Here’s a round-up of some of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories.

Monday

511

A total of 511 lists have been registered for this year’s elections to the Swiss parliament. This means a record number of candidates will be running for office on October 20. 

Tuesday

1

An investigation into the spying scandal at Swiss bank Credit Suisse found a single employee, chief operations officer Pierre-Olivier Bouée, solely responsible for the affair. Bouée has resigned but police investigations continue into the surveillance of former employee Iqbal Khan.

Wednesday

19 million

Another scandal, this time involving the Swiss postal service’s French bus subsidiary CarPostal France, which was earlier found to have received illegal subsidies. PostBus sold its French unit for an undisclosed sum but was forced to book CHF19 million in losses as a result of the sale. 

Thursday

700,000

This is the number of Poles who have taken out foreign currency denominated mortgage loans since 2000. The European Court of Justice ruled that national courts can individually be asked to cancel these contracts, which may result in CHF25 billion worth of Swiss franc loans being repaid. 

Thursday

82

Since 2000, 82 people have died in Switzerland while base jumping from cliffs. Politicians have demanded that this dangerous sport be outlawed in Switzerland.