Margot Patrick

Julius Baer put the spotlight back on risks at Switzerland’s banks with the departure of its chief executive and a big write-down of loans extended to property magnate René Benko. The private bank took a full loss allowance on the roughly $700 million it lent to Benko, the Austrian developer whose empire extended to a stake in the Chrysler Building, and his Signa group. Julius Baer had previously flagged a much smaller charge.

UBS Group reported its second consecutive quarterly loss, hit by expenses related to its takeover of Credit Suisse, but upped its dividend and said it would resume share buybacks this year. The Swiss bank posted a net loss of $279 million in the three months to the end of December, hit by around $1.75 billion in costs related to the integration of Credit Suisse. The share buybacks, for around $1 billion this year, will start after the second quarter, when it will also move swathes of customers off old Credit Suisse banking platforms and onto UBS systems.

Temenos stock continued falling Friday, even after the banking software company refuted Hindenburg Research's allegations of accounting irregularities. The stock fell 6.5% in Swiss trading Friday, building on a 28% plummet the day before after short seller Hindenburg alleged that Temenos paid some customers to fund its software contracts, and back- and forward-dated contracts to flatter its earnings. Temenos on Thursday refuted Hindenburg's report, describing the allegations as false and misleading.

Temenos stock fell again Friday, even after the banking software company tried to shoot down Hindenburg Research's allegations of accounting irregularities. The stock fell 6.5% in Swiss trading Friday, building on a 28% plummet the day before after short seller Hindenburg alleged that Temenos paid some customers to fund its software contracts, and back- and forward-dated contracts to flatter its earnings. Temenos on Thursday described Hindenburg's allegations as false and misleading.

Athens is getting closer to ridding itself of all its bank stakes, nearly 15 years after the economic meltdown that placed Greece at the center of the eurozone debt crisis. On Monday, Greece's Hellenic Financial Stability Fund started the sale of most, or potentially all, of its 27% stake in Piraeus Financial Holdings. Last year, the fund cashed out of two other lenders, Alpha Bank and Eurobank, and sold down its shares in another institution, National Bank of Greece.

It has been a year since Credit Suisse’s near-failure threatened to disrupt the global financial system. Instead, UBS quickly rescued its crosstown rival. + Buying Credit Suisse for around $3.8 billion in stock generated a $29 billion gain for UBS, but has also necessitated billions in integration costs.

UBS gave Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti a $13.6 million bonus, hailing his "excellent performance in a defining year" for Switzerland’s largest bank by assets. Ermotti felt loyalty to UBS and a call of duty to Switzerland after it bought Credit Suisse, he said in a recent podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway's sovereign wealth fund. Board members said he was key in reassuring clients, defusing risks, and stabilizing Credit Suisse, and praised his "vision, drive and ambition" for how to combine the businesses.

Goldman Sachs got a mixed report card in an annual look at how much it pays women in the U.K. The bank, which has a big international hub in London and runs a retail arm in the U.K., has experienced an exodus of senior women executives, many of whom have encountered challenges moving into the company's highest ranks and who have found better opportunities elsewhere. Goldman showed a 54% gap between what it pays men and women at its main U.K. unit in 2023, based on average hourly pay, and 28.5% by median pay. "This gender pay gap report does not account for pay in similar role or tenure, but we know that we need to do more to increase representation of women at the senior-most levels of the firm," the bank said in a statement.

The Heathrow-to-Dubai flights have two big money-laundering features: One airport doesn't scan outbound luggage for cash and the other welcomes sacks of it.

UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher criticized Switzerland’s plans to increase the bank’s loss buffers, saying “additional capital is the wrong remedy” to prevent another bank collapse. UBS took over its hobbled rival Credit Suisse last year in a government engineered rescue. Credit Suisse for years before failing insisted it had enough capital, and sometimes publicly battled regulators who said it needed more.