
Weekly Global News Wrap Up: Switzerland rejects sovereign money initiative; Credit Suisse culls senior investment banking jobs
And JPMorgan has been sued over a Mexican property transfer.
From Bloomberg: Switzerland dismissed a proposal to radically change the way banks lend money in a victory for the financial establishment.
The sovereign money initiative would have ended the centuries-old system of fractional reserve banking by allowing only the SNB to create money and requiring checking accounts to be fully backed by assets that are a direct claim on the monetary authority. Three quarters of voters rejected it.
From Bloomberg: Credit Suisse Group AG has been cutting senior investment-banking jobs as the Swiss bank reorganizes its European advisory business to boost profitability, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Since February, the bank has let go about 26 directors and managing directors with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions and industry coverage. The cuts have mostly been focused on London, the people said.
From Reuters: A Mexican real estate developer has filed a $1.2b lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co of fraudulently inducing it to transfer properties based on a false promise it would sell them.
According to the complaint, Sacal and BVG transferred hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate to JPMorgan in September 2012, hoping to use sale proceeds to pay off a $99 million loan and for other business ventures. But the plaintiffs said JPMorgan “never intended to fulfill its promise” and took over the properties to “exact revenge,” including by collecting more fees and interest, in the wake of business disputes that they thought had been resolved in 2010.