Swiss lawmakers remove contentious pay cap from remuneration motion
Bonuses should be withheld in the absence of business success, the lower house economic affairs and taxation committee said in a statement, while limiting the proposed rule to systemically important banks like UBS (UBSG.S), opens new tab.
The amendment comes amid a contentious debate on how to regulate UBS, the country's biggest bank. It removed the pay cap from the motion barely two weeks after the United States imposed some of its highest import tariffs on Switzerland.
The motion to police bankers' pay must still be voted on by both houses of parliament.
($1 = 0.8069 Swiss francs)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
6 minutes ago
- The Independent
DWP launches independent review into Post Office staff prosecutions
The Department for Work and Pensions is launching an independent review into its handling of prosecutions against Post Office staff. There were around 100 prosecutions by the DWP between 2001 and 2006, during the Horizon IT scandal. The decision to review the work on the cases comes after it was revealed the Post Office investigation team shared information with the DWP. The investigation will look at the period of time covered by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024, from 1996 to 2018. This was the legislation that effectively gave a blanket exoneration to Post Office staff convicted in that time, but it did not include DWP-related convictions. It was uncovered that the DWP and Post Office had conducted joint investigations during the scandal by Sky News last May. Responding to the findings at the time, lawyer and then-chair of the Justice Select Committee, Sir Robert Neill KC said the DWP convictions need to be 'looked at'. "I think that's the area they need to look at if we are saying their approach was tainted from the beginning - in the way the investigators adopted things - then joint operations I suspect would be just as tainted arguably as something where it has been the Post Office on its own." A DWP spokesperson said: 'We have committed to commissioning an independent assurance review where Post Office members of staff were prosecuted by the Department for welfare-related fraud. 'These cases involved complex investigations and were backed by evidence including filmed surveillance, stolen benefit books and witness statements – to date, no documentation has been identified showing that Horizon data was essential to these prosecutions.' Lawyer Neil Hudgell, who represented several victims of the Post Office scandal, said the review was 'wholly inadequate', adding that the DWP "should not be marking its own homework.' "Any involvement in the process of appointing reviewers undermines all confidence in the independence of the process," he said. The Horizon IT scandal saw approximately 1,000 individuals wrongfully prosecuted and convicted. Around £1 billion has been paid to victims so far according to the Department for Business and Trade, after a legal act which came into effect on 25 January 2024 authorised automatic compensation. The inquiry into the scandal is still ongoing, having published the first volume of its final report in July.
BBC News
6 minutes ago
- BBC News
Celtic's £40m bluff is about to be called
There are one or two people in the Celtic boardroom who clearly love a good game of cards. Their poker face is about to get tested to the limit, however, and there's a real chance they've overestimated their gamble? The current Celtic squad should be good enough to negotiate one round of Champions League qualifying, from the relative security of the 'champions' path'.When Kazakh champions Kairat Almaty came out of the hat the other week, a collective grin broke out from some of a Celtic persuasion, with the odd Borat meme thrown in for good not laughing now, and neither are the players at the table. The stakes have been raised to £40m with the Uefa dealer shuffling the deck one final time. Celtic's money men could have gone 'all in' earlier in the game. Instead, they're trying to bluff their way to Europe's top table with a hand they view as good enough to might be right, but big questions remain. Why take the risk, with well over £60m sitting in the bank and a further £15m-plus in the post after the sale of Nicolas Kuhn to Como? When star striker Kyogo Furuhashi was allowed to leave at the turn of the year, why wasn't a replacement already lined up and how on earth can the club still be searching for his successor eight months later?Why has history been allowed to repeat itself? Remember Santa being booed and furious fans waving their wallets at shell-shocked directors in Celtic Park's main stand? December 2023, months after a poor transfer window, followed the second coming of Brendan Rodgers. That mini-crisis was overcome and the club appeared to go from strength to strength. The Northern Irishman delivered four trophies in two seasons, adding to clear progression in the Champions begs another awkward question: why hasn't he been offered a new contract? It speaks to much of the current recruitment inertia. Why on earth would the purse strings be loosened for a manager in the final few months of his tenure, whose players might not be to the taste of a potential incomer next summer?Is that part of the overall gamble? That even a frustrated Rodgers, who might be assessing his next managerial move, can get enough of a tune out of an already expensively assembled squad to get past the champions of Kazakhstan?Again, the powerbrokers might be right. On the one hand, you have to tip your hat at the way they've held their nerve amid pleadings from the manager and fury from some in the stands. On the other hand, was such a high-stakes gamble really necessary when, had they gone after two or three targets with real intent to deliver, they could have made the journey to the promised land far less perilous and eminently less nerve-racking?It all adds to the drama, of course. "Sack the board," some supporters shouted. A tad premature, given a win in Almaty next week gets Celtic back to Europe's top table. Celtic are betting the house that their manager has an ace up his sleeve for the return leg. With £40m worth of chips on the table, their bluff is about to be called.
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
FIA announces tender for new WRC promoter
Aug 21 (Reuters) - Motorsport's governing body announced on Thursday a tender process to replace Red Bull and German investment company KW25 as commercial rights holders of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said JPMorgan would act as financial advisor to Red Bull and KW25, who jointly own Munich-based WRC Promoter GmbH -- the commercial arm responsible for media, sponsorship rights, and television production. The promoter, which also oversees the European Rally Championship, took over the WRC rights in 2013 and still had seven years remaining on the contract, according to sources. Reuters reported a year ago that the owners were preparing a potential sale with a target valuation of up to 500 million euros ($581 million). The WRC has been in existence since 1973 and this year features 14 rounds on different continents with the showcase Monte Carlo Rally opening the season in January. "The tender process for the commercial rights holder is a big opportunity for a new enterprise to take the championship into its next chapter with renewed energy and investment," said the FIA's deputy president for sport Malcolm Wilson. "We will work with Red Bull and KW25 to find the best fit for this important role." The FIA said the championship had surged in popularity with a cumulative television audience of 1.3 billion and more than four million on-site visitors in 2024, with huge further growth potential. Paraguay makes its debut hosting a round of the championship this weekend and the sport is looking into a future round in the United States. "I am confident that, together with the right partner, we can take the championship to the next level, preserve its proud heritage, and grow its global reach for generations of fans to come," said FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. ($1 = 0.8606 euros)
