ZURICH, May 31 (Reuters) – Swiss banks could see assets from
western European clients fall 28 percent because of deals to
tax undeclared accounts, potentially forcing the industry to cut
up to 15,500 jobs to stay profitable, the Boston Consulting
Group said.

The BCG predicted in its annual global wealth report on
Thursday that western European assets booked in Switzerland
could fall 248 billion Swiss francs ($256 billion) to 623
billion by 2014.

ZURICH, May 27 (Reuters) – Switzerland is drawing up plans
for emergency measures including capital controls in case the
euro collapses although it does not expect to need them and will
continue to defend a cap on the franc in the meantime, the head
of the central bank said.

“We must be prepared just in case the currency union
collapses, although I don’t expect that,” Swiss National Bank
President Thomas Jordan, who predicted the euro zone crisis in
his 1994 doctoral thesis, told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

GENEVA (Reuters) – There will be no mass exodus of clients from Switzerland’s banks due to deals with several European countries over untaxed assets stashed in secret accounts and a pledge to turn away tax evaders in future, the industry association’s head told Reuters.

“The chances are much of that money will stay one way or another to be managed professionally in Switzerland,” Patrick Odier, chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association and managing partner of private bank Lombard Odier, said in an interview.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Europe’s biggest biotech company Actelion said it would only return to earnings growth in 2014, later than analysts expect, as new medicines and cost cuts would take time to offset falling sales of a key heart and lung drug.

The Swiss group, which received a boost last week from positive trial results of a new generation heart and lung disease treatment, said on Tuesday it expected stable core earnings in 2013 in local currencies, followed by a return to growth in 2014 and double digit percentage growth in 2015.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss food group Nestle is to buy drugmaker Pfizer’s baby food business for $11.85 billion, beating out French rival Danone in the battle for dominance of fast-growing emerging markets.

The world’s biggest food company had to dig deeper than expected into its ample pockets to win the high-stakes fight for Pfizer Nutrition, which makes 85 percent of its sales in emerging markets and is Nestle’s biggest deal to date.