Switzerland Today

Greetings from Zurich,

Everyone is heading for the swimming pool to escape the heat. But the Swiss media is hot on the trail of one bathing facility restaurateur who is wanted in the US for alleged misdeeds in his former life as a banker.

Keystone / Joshua Lindsey

In the news: A flying minister’s escapades, interest rates and a drought drying up oil supplies.

• Health Minister Alain Berset, a keen hobby pilot, was left red-faced earlier this month when French military jets were scrambled to intercept his Cessna as it strayed too near an airforce base. Berset was able to explain himself to the French authorities and continued with his pleasure flight to western France. All seemed well until the media picked up on the story. It’s all the more embarrassing against the backdrop of an ongoing political kerfuffle over why Switzerland bought US fighter jets to stock up its own air force instead of French planes. But at least Berset won’t face French charges for his own flying escapades, the French ambassador to France has confirmed.
• We all know that inflation leads to higher costs for household goods. But the Covid-hit global economy also came at a price for bank savers. When the Swiss National Bank (SNB) lowered interest rates into negative territory to prop up the economy, it resulted in charges for high street banks for holding money in the SNB’s vaults. Since the start of negative interest rates in 2015, this has cost commercial banks more than CHF11 billion. Most banks have passed some of the cost to wealthy private and business clients. In June the SNB raised rates by half a percentage point to fight inflation. The European Central Bank followed suit this week. Julius Bär, Switzerland’s largest pure-play wealth manager, is the latest bank to scrap negative interest rate charges for its clients.
• Extreme dry weather has further complicated the already tenuous supply of oil to Switzerland. The drought has reduced the Rhine to such low levels that larger vessels, delivering oil products, can no longer navigate the river safely. That means reduced supplies of oil. Swiss law demands minimum stockpiles of oil reserves so that homes can be warmed in winter, for example. But the government has realised that these reserves cannot be met in the short term. The authorities have temporarily reduced their stockpile demands in the hope that the situation will improve at the onset of autumn.

Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella

The curious case of ‘the world’s most wanted swimming pool worker’

The summer holiday season never fails to throw up odd stories. This year is no different. The Republik newspaper has managed to uncover a recently appointed restaurant manager at an outdoor swimming pool who doubles up as a fugitive from United States justice. The former banker, known as ‘Peter S’, is wanted in the US for alleged money laundering and financial fraud that apparently fleeced clients out of their money.

Peter S is said to be part of a fraudulent gang that assumed the identities of famous people to convince their victims to invest their cash. According to Republik and Blick, he is the only member of the gang still at large – and now he’s holed up at a swimming pool in the swanky Gold Coast district on the shores of Lake Zurich.

But Peter S is having none of this. “I have never broken any laws, either in America or in Switzerland,” he told BlickExternal link. “I have nothing to fear.” The municipality that hired him is equally adamant that there is nothing remiss. “We don’t need to be concerned with what’s happening in the US,” a spokesperson said.