This woman presents Switzerland

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On Saturday night, there was the sound of an explosion. The Financial Times headlined, “UBS is in talks to take over CS.”

The news hit the financial world with icy precision on March 18, 2023, marking the dramatic climax of a black week for the Swiss banking hub that marked the end of 166 years of Credit Suisse.

The newspaper in no way concealed its news behind a subjunctive, renounced relativizations such as “reportedly”, thereby surprising not only the Swiss media, but also the heads of the Federal Council, Finma, the National Bank and UBS and CS. who were still in secret negotiations.

The players at the negotiating table were suddenly put under pressure: disclosure put the market-stunned financial institution absolutely doomed, bursting negotiations was no longer an option, and there was no alternative to a deal until Sunday.

“Expelling the Swiss”

The final days of CS turned into a national spectacle of impotence: as Switzerland buried the big bank, the authority to interpret this Swiss tragedy was not in Bern or Zurich, but on 1 Friday Street in London. The traditional British daily newspaper, known as the FT for short, was the undisputed leader in reporting. Roula Khalaf (57) has been editor since January 2020. The Lebanese native is the first woman to head the paper, considered the hallmark of the global business elite, a salmon-colored security in the world of traders, gamblers and brokers.

SonntagsBlick wanted to know what Khalaf’s newspaper had to say about his role in the CS thriller.

It may respond to booming financial institutions a little more insensitively than others. Khalaf grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War and then moved to London with her husband, an Anglo-Lebanese entrepreneur. As a war correspondent, he covered Iraq and Syria. In his 28 years at the FT, he has interviewed prominent figures in world affairs such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 37.

After the historic CS press conference last Sunday, “FT” did the same. And he talked about how US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (76) from Washington led her Swiss counterpart, Karin Keller-Sutter (59), to her desired outcome. The newspaper quotes an insider saying how they dealt with the Swiss, which doesn’t translate very well. The Bundestag rejects such attempts to pressure through the “NZZ”, but this is harm-only limitation – the article “FT” presented the highest Swiss officials on the open stage.

stock trader from manhattan

The confident advancement of the business newspaper, founded in 1888, has repeatedly led to speculation about its role, sources, and aims. Was it the British government directly connected to the negotiating table through the Treasury? London is in direct competition with the Swiss financial center and has corresponding interests.

Khalaf wrote perhaps his most important story for Forbes magazine in 1991 at the age of 25. In New York (USA), he noticed the extravagant lifestyle of a then 29-year-old stock trader. Khalaf wrote a moral portrait of the Ferrari Testarossa driving pride and its surroundings: “Steaks, Meats – What’s the Difference?” (Steak or broth – what’s the difference?). He described him as “a Robin Hood hybrid who took it from the rich and gave it to himself and his gang of brokers”.

The young man named Jordan Belfort later became a famous figure in the Big Apple and later wrote his memoir The Wolf of Wall Street. Cult director Martin Scorsese (80) filmed the material in 2013 in the strip of the same name with Leonardo DiCaprio (48) in the lead role. A ruthless journalist also briefly appears in the film, for which the film hero is very upset – by this, of course, he means Khalaf.

“FT” has played an indispensable role at the Paradeplatz in Zurich and not just since last week. When Tidjane Thiam (60) left as CS CEO three years ago, the page sided with Ivorian; In the crucial VR session, the audience learned every detail, down to the food service (pizza delivered).

Your team works “day and night”

Based on internal emails this January, SonntagsBlick showed how routinely even the State Secretariat of International Finance (SIF) talked about “FT” in its dealings with the industry and repeatedly tried to exert direct influence on editors (“Thanks. , Take this information into account when rewriting about the Swiss financial center»).

On Wednesday, SonntagsBlick received a statement from the “FT” boss about CS reporting on his article. Of course, it leaves the question of who are the sources behind the articles unanswered – but he emphasizes that the editorial team is at the forefront of the dossier “because we have excellent reporters who have invested in fundraising for European banking”.

Colleagues worked as a well-established team and would work extra shifts in the CS case: “Our reporters worked day and night.”

Owned by the Japanese Nikkei Group since 2015, the newspaper is developing under Khalaf. “FT” was one of the first games to introduce the online payment barrier in 2007 and has been steadily increasing prices ever since. Monthly reach is 22 million readers.

Since “FT”‘s CS boom on March 18, a Zurich satire of the famous Scorsese movie has been circulating the internet. It is now called: “Dä Wolf vo dä Bahnhofstrass”.

Source :Blick