ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s embattled top central banker vowed to fight “with all means” accusations of wrongdoing centered on a currency trade made by his wife three weeks before he imposed a cap on the soaring Swiss franc.

Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Philipp Hildebrand told a Swiss news conference he had no plans to quit after an employee of the bank used by his family leaked bank account details to the lawyer of a political adversary.

ZURICH/LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – The plight of Swiss
oil refiner Petroplus worsened on Thursday as lenders
extended the freeze on its borrowing to all credit lines, on top
of $1 billion choked off last week.

The company’s shares tumbled some 23 percent following the
news as doubts grew about its ability to keep operating.

ZURICH, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s top central
banker will battle for his future on Thursday as he faces a
grilling over a controversial currency trade made by his wife
three weeks before he oversaw moves to impose a cap on the Swiss
franc.

Swiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Philipp
Hildebrand will break his silence over the episode at 1500 GMT
after an employee of his family’s bank leaked details of the
trade to the lawyer of a political adversary.

PARIS/NEUCHATEL, Switzerland (Reuters) -

Petroplus (PPHN.S: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to close three of its five oil refineries over the coming weeks because it has run out of money for crude supplies since bankers froze its credit lines abruptly this week.

Talks with the bankers have been “open and constructive” and will continue in the coming days, the financially troubled company said in a statement about the closures on Friday.

PARIS/NEUCHATEL, Dec 30 (Reuters) – European oil
refiner Petroplus has won a temporary funding reprieve
from reluctant lenders, a source close to the matter said on
Friday as plans to shut down at least one of the company’s five
plants got under way.

“A provisional financing agreement has been found to keep
the talks going,” the source told Reuters in Paris after days of
French and Swiss government pressure for a solution to keep the
business running and avoid job cuts.

ZURICH/PARIS, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Embattled Swiss-based
oil refiner Petroplus was hit with a credit-rating cut
from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s on Thursday as its lending
banks tried to thrash out a solution to keep the debt-laden
company afloat.

Petroplus’s future has been thrown into doubt since it
revealed on Tuesday lenders had frozen a $1 billion credit
facility the company relies on to buy crude oil.

FRUTIGEN, Switzerland (Reuters) – Dressed in a surgeon’s white garb, “Caviar Meister” Tobias Felix slits open the slimy, grey skin of the sturgeon on the table in front of him to reveal Switzerland’s latest luxury delicacy.

Costing up to 1,275 Swiss francs for 250 grams, “Oona” — meaning “extraordinary” in Celtic — is the name of the Alpine country’s first Swiss caviar.

ZURICH, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Armed with snow canons and
cut-price hotel deals some of Switzerland’s ski resorts, already
beleaguered by the strong Swiss franc, are grappling with
another obstacle — no snow.

A dry November has forced several ski resorts to push back
the start of the season, the latest in a string of bad news for
hoteliers who have struggled to fill beds as the soaring Swiss
franc deters foreign holidaymakers.

ZURICH, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The Swiss National Bank
(SNB) told Switzerland’s cantons on Monday they might not
receive their customary dividend as the central bank tries to
shore up its balance sheet after racking up record losses in
2010 to try and stop the franc soaring.

Under its new framework agreed with the finance ministry,
the SNB said it would reduce its annual payout to the federal
government and Switzerland’s 26 cantons to 1 billion Swiss
francs ($1.1 bln), if and when it posts a big enough profit.

ZURICH, Nov 17 (Reuters) – A Swiss court on Thursday
said it lacked clear evidence to rule on an appeal by a former
Swiss banker turned WikiLeaks whistleblower against his
conviction for breaching Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy
after he revealed private client data.

Rudolf Elmer, who worked at the Cayman Islands branch of
Swiss private bank Julius Baer until he was fired in
2002, helped bring WikiLeaks to prominence when he used the data
to publish bank documents to expose tax evasion.