Care not dividends

No distribution of profits by banks assisted by the Confederation

The COVID-19 pandemic has already caused more than 1,100 deaths in Switzerland, despite the great dedication of healthcare workers. The sectors and people hit the hardest need massive public aid. But this aid must not be diverted to a financial sector in crisis.[1]

Unlike other governments, such as Germany, the Swiss Federal Council is allowing companies benefiting from emergency measures to continue to distribute profits to their shareholders in the form of dividends. However the FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, warned that for banks this would be imprudent.[2] UBS and Credit Suisse are insisting on paying them out this year, despite the fact that the threat of new bank failures (of Credit Suisse in particular) is reemerging.[3] Let's not repeat the mistakes that led to the crisis of 2008.

Like a tsunami, the pandemic is hitting us very hard. It calls into question our priorities. The challenges it poses can be an opportunity to agree on a social, economic and environmental transition needed now more than ever.

Public aid must go first and foremost to those most affected. To those who cannot pay their rent or bills during the crisis; to the health and care workers who are struggling to protect us; to those who are acting to develop local food sovereignty; to indigenous peoples and grassroots communities who are protecting biodiversity around the world.[4]

To end this crisis, we need care, not dividends to BlackRock, the sovereign fund of Qatar or any other major investor.

Let's demand an immediate freeze on the distribution of dividends by banks receiving public aid!

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[1] State interventions in the financial sector justified by the pandemic conceal a huge bailout of the financial sector has entered a crisis similar to that of 2008. Four months before the start of the pandemic, the US Federal Reserve was already organising the distribution of thousands of billions of dollars to banks threatened with bankruptcy by the bursting of this new speculative bubble: https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/03/wall-streets-crisis-began-four-months-before-the-first-reported-death-from-coronavirus-in-china-heres-the-proof/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/business/fed-repo-rates.html According to several economists, this windfall for banks will only increase inequalities, revive speculation and indebt governments, while aid to people and sectors in crisis would support the real economy. https://www.bilan.ch/finance/coronavirus-cest-une-fois-de-plus-sauve-qui-peut-la-finance

[2] https://www.bilan.ch/finance/le-chef-de-la-finma-exhorte-les-banques-a-ne-pas-verser-de-dividende

[3] The cost of Credit Suisse's bankruptcy insurance (Credit Default Swaps) is on the rise (Tribune de Genève Credit Suisse fait peur aux investisseurs) and its stock market value has fallen by 47% (UBS's by 31%) in the last three weeks: https://www.tdg.ch/services/commentaires/story/17072175?action=confirm_email&code=07794ab6d5c5a9401cff13059630a35b&customer_id=52&[email protected]&force_desktop=true

[4]https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/7664/Frontiers_2016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y The United Nations Environment Programme's Frontiers 2016 report notes that the increase in animal-borne diseases (such as the virus that causes VIDOC-19) has known aggravating factors, such as poorly regulated and illegal wildlife trade, deforestation, intensive agriculture and livestock farming. In addition, it is estimated that indigenous peoples protect more than 80% of the world's biodiversity (World Bank 2008).