ZURICH, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Zurich Insurance Group
recorded a bigger-than-expected fall in third-quarter net profit
after a blow to its German general insurance business, sending
its shares to a three-month low on Thursday.

A reassessment of the German operation’s loss reserves drove
down net profits by $400 million, while a weak investment result
and crop losses caused by drought in the United States also took
their toll.

ZURICH, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Swiss Life’s
beleaguered financial advisory arm AWD suffered a decline in
sales in the third quarter, highlighting the challenges the
insurer faces in turning around the German unit.

Switzerland’s biggest dedicated life insurer bought
Hanover-based AWD for 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in 2008.
But the division, whose main markets include Germany and
Austria, has struggled in recent years.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland is ready to enter into formal negotiations with Greece over a deal to tax the assets wealthy Greeks have stashed in secret Swiss bank accounts.

The Swiss government said on Wednesday it had adopted a mandate for negotiations after consulting parliamentary committees. The two governments have been holding initial discussions on the matter for several months already.

ZURICH, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s foreign exchange
reserves fell for the first time in eight months in October and
price pressures were low, giving its central bank more
ammunition to extend its cap on the franc.

The Swiss National Bank held 424.38 billion Swiss francs
($449.70 billion) compared with 429.48 billion in September,
according to data published on Thursday.

ZURICH, Nov 5 (Reuters) – The Swiss housing market shows
growing signs of overheating, a survey suggests, increasing the
chances that the central bank will make good on a threat to
impose a capital buffer for banks.

The UBS real estate bubble index has entered its risk zone
for the first time since Switzerland suffered a housing market
collapse two decades ago. It rose by 0.2 points to 1.02 points
in the third quarter, UBS said on Monday.

ZURICH, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Swiss manufacturing shrank for a
seventh month in a row in October as demand continued to be hit
by the euro zone crisis, although there were signs the outlook
is improving, PMI data showed on Thursday.

The Swiss purchasing managers’ index rose to a seasonally
adjusted 46.1 points in October from 43.6 points in September.
Although the print beat analysts’ forecasts for 44.5 points, it
remained below the 50 mark, which separates growth from
contraction, for the seventh month in a row.

ZURICH, Oct 31 (Reuters) – The Swiss National Bank has made
a hefty nine-month profit and trimmed euro holdings in favour of
dollars and sterling in its huge foreign exchange reserves built
up to weaken the franc.

The diversification and profit bolster the SNB’s drive to
keep the safe-haven franc capped at 1.20 per euro, a limit set
more than a year ago to ward off deflation and recession.

ZURICH, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Swiss speciality chemicals maker
Clariant posted a bigger-than-expected drop in
quarterly net income and cut its full-year sales forecast,
joining rivals in feeling the pain from austerity-hit European
markets.

Shares in the firm, whose products put colour into plastics,
fell more than 5 percent on Wednesday after it predicted flat
sales in local currencies for 2012, compared with a forecast in
July for some growth.

ZURICH/LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) – A metal door set into a
mountain in Switzerland offers a way out for fine art investors
forced to pay over the odds to insure their collections.

The doorway leads into a disused military bunker, one of
several being sold off by the Swiss government and whose
echoing, climate-controlled chambers, once used to stockpile
munitions, are being put forward as ideal storage space for
works of art.

ZURICH, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Swiss engineering firm ABB
is cautious about the coming months after the euro
zone crisis and slackness in other major economies translated
into a fall in orders in the third quarter.

Net profit at the company, which competes with the likes of
Siemens and General Electric, dipped 4 percent
in the quarter to $759 million compared with an average analyst
forecast for $764 million. Orders fell 5 percent to $9.295
billion, short of the $9.958 billion expected in a Reuters poll.