Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern!

Tipping – whether in restaurants, bars, taxis or hairdressers – can be a minefield. Given that Swiss locals are all over the places with how much they tip, according to a survey published today, spare a thought for tourists. You can understand why Swiss waitstaff love Americans, who are used to tipping around 20% (staff in the US are on lower base salaries). Here, most people simply round up a couple of francs. How do you tip?

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the news:  Some 85% of respondents to a poll said they left tips after eating out in a restaurant. In bars and other places, the generosity is lower, but still considerable.

• As for the size of the tip, 21% of customers round up to the next five-franc figure, while 17% give 10% of the bill. Some 16% base their generosity on what cash they have available at the time, and 11% vary it according to mood and satisfaction with the service.
• A British subsidiary of Swiss mining and trading group Glencore has been ordered to pay a total penalty of £276.4 million (CHF314.2 million) in a London court for seven bribery offences in relation to its oil operations in Africa. The judge said the offences to which Glencore had pleaded guilty represented “corporate corruption on a widespread scale, deploying very substantial sums of money in bribes”.
• Neutral Switzerland has again rejected an appeal from Germany to allow it to re-export Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine. “Under the principle of equal treatment in neutrality law, Switzerland cannot agree to a request for the transfer of war materiel of Swiss origin to Ukraine as long as the latter is involved in an international armed conflict,” the government said today.

RSI

The Italian mountain village of Monteviasco, a couple of hundred metres from the Swiss border, can be reached only on foot. Residents are fed up with this and now say they want to become part of Switzerland.

Nestled between Lake Maggiore, Monte Tamaro and Lugano lies the small Italian village of Monteviasco (pictured). On the one hand it’s idyllic, but on the other it’s been pretty much cut off from the outside world for almost five years. Anyone who wants to get from the valley to the village needs a lot of patience and leg power: it can only be reached on foot – and there are 1,400 steps.

There is a cable car, but due to a fatality it’s been out of operation since 2018, and the Italian state doesn’t seem to be interested. Now the village is taking its fate into its own hands. In a provocative letter the inhabitants have demanded annexation to Switzerland, reports Swiss public television, RSIExternal link. “If pulling down the national border helps to escape the shackles of Italian bureaucracy, then Switzerland is welcome,” the letter says.

However, the residents of Monteviasco are apparently not entirely serious about switching sides. As the newspaper Prealpina writes, the letter aims to reignite the debate about the future of the valley and get Italian politicians to show an interest in the village.

Keystone / Kimimasa Mayama

The decision by Japanese investment bank Nomura to locate its new cryptocurrency business in Switzerland appears to have vindicated the Swiss finance ministry’s initiative to roll out the red carpet for blockchain companies.

Nomura’s ‘Laser Digital’ unit is exactly the type of crypto firm that Switzerland is targeting with its ‘Home of Blockchain’ campaign to promote the Alpine state as a prime venue for international companies.

“Blockchain is one of the instruments that will transform and modernise global finance,” said Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer on launching the scheme in May. “It is very important that the Swiss financial centre plays a leading role in this transformation process. It will make us more competitive.”

My colleague Matthew Allen, a crypto specialist, explains Switzerland’s rise as a pioneering blockchain hub – and what it needs to do to stay out in front.