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Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have built a new extension to their original Tate Mode design. In a rare interview, the duo spoke to Swiss public television about their work. (SRF/RTS, swissinfo.ch)

In 2000, the Herzog & de Meuron architecture firm converted the former Bankside Power Station in London into what is now known as the Tate Mode museum. With 4.7 million visitors in 2015 it’s one of the most visited contemporary art museums in the world.

In June 2016, the extension was opened by the new mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The “Switch House”, as it’s known, is a ten-storey tower clad with brick in the form of a twisting pyramid, and takes the name from part of the former power station that the new wing of the Tate Mode museum occupies.

The unique façade of the new building reinterprets the power station’s brickwork through 336,000 lattice bricks that allow the light to filter in pattes during the day and makes the building glow in the dark.

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have built up their architecture firm to become one of the most renowned in the world, recently designing the Beijing Olympics’ Bird’s Nest, among other iconic buildings.

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Banks and professional traders are lining up to take advantage of volatility created by Britain’s vote on EU membership. Amateur investors are also looking to cash in during the June 23 vote, but this has made some online platforms wary of the losses they could rack up.

Swissquote, one of Switzerland’s largest online brokers with more than 230,000 client accounts, understands better than most the risks of “armchair investors” getting in over their heads. Last year it had to write off CHF25 million ($26 million) in bad debts when account holders were caught out by the central bank’s abandonment of the franc-euro peg.

With the Brexit vote looming, Swissquote is now determined to limit the size of clients’ bets by raising margin rates on certain foreign exchange trades from 1% to 5%. This means that traders using its platform must now put up five times more capital to cover the risk of trades going sour.

Using CHF50,000 of their own money, Swissquote users can now speculate on currency exchange rates to the tune of CHF1 million – instead of the normal CHF5 million ceiling.

Other online brokers have followed suit, including Coér Bank’s platform Coér Trader, the Geneva-based IG Bank and the Swiss branches of Saxo Bank.

The June 23 referendum in Britain represents the perfect conditions for traders: a planned event with a highly uncertain outcome (opinion polls are still divided on the result) that could bring big swings in market prices either way depending on the way votes are cast.

Volatile exchange rates

The British pound has already lost 7% of its value against the Swiss franc since January. Some analysts believe the sterling could plunge 20% against the US dollar if the Brexit “Leave” campaign wins.

On top of that, Britain leaving the European Union would almost certainly depress the trading value of the euro. The franc recently hit six-month highs against the euro.

Alteately, a “Remain” vote would likely rally the British pound and reverse much of the downward pressure it has faced in the past few weeks of uncertainty.

In addition to foreign exchange trades, the bond and derivatives markets are also bound to see winners and losers come June 23. Professional traders, particularly in London, which is home to most of Europe’s investment bankers, are talking about Brexit as one of the most highly anticipated events in recent times.

Several media have pointed out that teams of traders in all major investment banks have been ordered to work through the night on Thursday. It is expected that results of the referendum will start drifting in at around 10pm Swiss time.

Swiss private banks have also been quietly enjoying some of the benefits of the pre-referendum uncertainty. Those investors who lack the risk appetite of investment bankers or day traders have been pulling their assets into safe havens, such as the Swiss franc.

Should Brexit become reality, Swiss private bankers expect the flow to expand into a flood of cash escaping the volatility.

“If you see major corrections, clients try to protect their assets first,” UBS head of wealth management Jürg Zeltner recently told Reuters. “A lot of clients sit on 30-plus per cent cash. So what they are going to do is just move that into what they will consider a safe haven.”

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Swiss private banks are looking to capitalise on global banks' retreat from Southeast Asia, pushing deeper into the region as they seek to extend their range beyond Singapore to tap wealthy clients in less developed markets.

Bordier & Cie is the latest wealth manager seeking partnerships with regional banks in markets including Vietnam, on the heels of a similar tie-up in Thailand between Lombard Odier and a local bank. Credit Suisse, too, is targeting rich Thais, setting up a team of relationship managers in Bangkok.

Geneva-based Bordier & Cie said it is in talks with at least three regional institutions about setting up partnerships under a strategy aimed at increasing profits in Asia without raising its fixed costs.

Many banks have struggled to make sustainable profits from the rise of Asia's super-rich in the face of rising regulatory costs, particularly in relation to preventing money laundering.

In the past two years, both Barclays and Société Générale have sold their Asian private banking operations to regional banks. In April, JPMorgan cut 20% of its Asia private bank relationship managers as it refocused on a smaller pool of richer clients.

Under its proposed partnerships, Bordier & Cie will train regional banks and help them set up wealth management units. The Swiss group will charge for the service, which would include sharing specialist knowledge and training in Singapore and Switzerland, and hopes in tu to be introduced to clients who wish to bank in Singapore.

Evrard Bordier, managing partner at Bordier & Cie in Singapore, said: "We do not have the strength to be in every country."

The aim is to boost profits without shouldering increased costs of office rental, IT and staffing in the region, Bordier said. "We don't try to step on their toes and set up a business in the same country," he said. "You forge alliances."

Bordier & Cie, which opened a Singapore operation in 2011 and now has 35 staff in the city-state, is one of a number of Swiss banks of varying sizes targeting the region. It had CHF10.5 billion ($10.9 billion) in assets under management last year.

Lombard Odier, a mid-sized Swiss bank with CHF160 billion in assets under management, has also sought to extend its reach in Asia, linking up with local banks in Thailand, Japan, Australia and South Korea.

Part of Lombard Odier's deal with Thailand's Kasikobank includes referring wealthy Thai clients to the Swiss company, which provides training for the Thai bank's relationship managers.

Credit Suisse is adding a team of six relationship managers in Bangkok and aims to doubling that number by the end of the year, while Julius Baer said in April it is hiring at least 50 more relationship managers in Asia.

But expansion in Asia can also pose reputational risk relating to the sources of some client wealth. Swiss bank BSI, which grew rapidly in Singapore over the past seven years, is facing criminal proceedings after an investigation by Switzerland's financial supervisor Finma found it was "in serious breach" of money laundering regulations connected to the scandal surrounding Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB.

BSI has said it is cooperating with authorities in Switzerland and Singapore and has taken steps to improve management and compliance.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016

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Three years after the migrant boat tragedy in Lampedusa, in which 366 people drowned, relatives are still trying to identify dead bodies to conduct a dignified burial. It’s a difficult but important process which is being supported by the Swiss Red Cross.

“We told them several times that they shouldn’t set out, but they didn’t listen. One day they got into a boat heading for Europe. We haven’t heard from them since,” says Bila Bila Barre from Somalia, recounting the story of her two nephews Hussene (20) und Maxamud (19). They wanted to travel to Italy via Libya.

Barre is certain that the young men perished with other migrants in the terrible shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa on October 3, 2015, in which at least 366 people died. Ironically, it was one of the few refugee tragedies in which most of the dead were recovered.

“The dates coincide, even if none of the 155 survivors can confirm they saw the two on board. But as long as we haven’t seen any bodies there’s still doubt. Are they being held somewhere? Were they killed by criminal gangs specialising in the trafficking of human organs? You hear so many stories,” says Barre, who arrived in Switzerland as a refugee in the 1990s and now holds Swiss citizenship.

At the request of her sister, she contacted the Swiss Red Cross to try to find the two young men, or at least their remains. The Swiss Red Cross receives requests on a daily basis from families who have been separated by conflict or exile. It helped convince other Red Cross Societies to register migrants missing at sea.

It’s a first step towards identifying people who have died in the Mediterranean. According to the UN refugee agency (known as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR), that number has risen to more than 10,000 since 2014.

Italy took a further important step following the 2015 Lampedusa tragedies, but without European Union support. At the Labanof laboratory in the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Milan, the victims' post-mortem data, such as DNA samples, is analysed. In addition, so-called “Ante-mortem data” are collected – everything from personal belonging and photographs to scars or tattoos.

Such information can help with the identification of victims, explains Vittorio Piscitelli, who has been the Italian govement’s Special Commissioner for Missing Persons since December 2013.

Searching for a name

With the support of the Swiss Red Cross, last autumn Barre travelled to Milan hoping to identify her nephews. Other family members who live in Switzerland came as well to search for information about three additional migrants who went missing at sea.

“At the Labanof lab, they showed me an album with photos of the bodies which they had found in the sea. I had taken a recent photo of my nephews and I tried to look for similarities with the bodies which had been deformed by the water. But it was so difficult . . .”

Using photos is often the only option for identifying the bodies. For DNA tests to be reliable, there needs to be a direct family link, between parents and children or between brothers and sisters, for example. But sometimes victims’ families still live in conflict-ridden countries like Syria or Eritrea, and cannot request help from their govements or even leave the country.

Thus, despite huge efforts from various organisations helping migrants as well as the Italian authorities, many victims who drowned at Lampedusa have been buried in Sicily. A simple ID number is placed on their coffin. More than eight months after her trip to Milan, Barre is still awaiting a reply from the laboratory.

Proper mouing

Nicole Windlin is responsible for the Swiss Red Cross tracing service. She is convinced of the importance of identifying victims of shipwrecks. The aim is not just to give dignity back to the dead but also to those still living.

“To mou properly, it’s essential that people can be sure that the person has actually died,” she explains. “Finding a body makes it possible to have a proper burial, according to the rites of each culture.”

There is also a legal and administrative aspect, she adds: “For widows, orphans and parents, when there is no document confirming the death, many questions cannot be answered. For example, a partner cannot remarry or inherit the assets of the missing person.”

According to Nicole Windlin, even 20 years after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia around 100 people in Switzerland are still hoping to find the bodies of their loved ones.

However, the case of people who drown in the Mediterranean is much more complex, she adds: “In Bosnia some families were able to remember what their relatives were wearing on the day they disappeared. Migrants, however, are often on the road for months, even years, and the only information we get are photos published on social media, posed pictures. That’s why it’s harder to recognise people.” In addition, there is no European database that catalogues migrants who have disappeared at sea.

A big challenge

With the arrival of spring, the number of boats packed with people leaving Libya for Italy has increased – as well as the number of boats sinking. According to UNHCR, from the beginning of 2016 on average 15.8 people have died every day crossing the Mediterranean. Most bodies are recovered months later.

Another boat tragedy that occurred on April 18, 2015, is a good example of the challenges. An estimated 700 refugees are thought to have died on that ship. Until now, the Italian navy has only managed to find 169 bodies located near the shipwreck. It is estimated that 200-400 skeletons are still trapped in the sunken hull, says Piscitelli. Attempts to raise the wreckage started recently – more than a year after the accident.

Piscitelli is frank. “The EU is afraid of the management of the migration phenomenon and of the bodies fished from the sea. It has left Italy with the responsibility of financing and managing the identification programme. It has tued its back on us.”

A flood tide of refugees

The total number of refugees and inteally displaced people worldwide rose to a record 65.3 million at the end of 2015, UNHCR said Monday. On average, 34,000 people a day were displaced last year, marking a 50% increase just since the Syria war began in 2011. More than one million people fled to Europe last year, wreaking political havoc in the European Union.

You can contact the author on Twitter at @stesummi

What should be done to prevent these tragedies in the Mediterranean? Give us your view in the Idea below.

Translated by Simon Bradley

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Here are the stories we’re following the week of June 20:

Monday

Almost three years after a shipwreck off the coast of Italy that killed 366 people fleeing conflict for better lives in Europe, the victims' families are still trying to identify the bodies so that they can hold a dignified burial. Here, swissinfo.ch looks at the difficult process the families are going through with help from the Swiss Red Cross.

Wednesday

One town is marking the time a century ago when Switzerland welcomed tens of thousands of prisoners of the First World War. In videotaped testimony, descendants told swissinfo.ch how emotional it is to visit Châteux d’Oex in southweste Switzerland, a main centre for inteed British soldiers.

Wednesday

In Zurich, the non-profit Switzerland Global Enterprise is holding discussions of booming Asian markets, and what a global shift of purchasing power to the new middle class holds in store for developing economies.

Thursday

Bruno Kaufmann, a frequent contributor to swissinfo.ch and an expert on direct democracy, offers his views on the meaning of separatism – seceding from larger groups by drawing lines of culture, ethnicity, religion, race or gender – in light of the looming Brexit vote.

Friday

Results from Britain’s vote on whether or not to remain in the European Union, with swissinfo.ch examining the multiple underlying issues and possible consequences for Switzerland.

What you may have missed last week:

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A strange creature called “Steinbockovich” has been spotted around Switzerland. His mission? Exploring the biology of the Alpine ibex, and the animal’s place in Swiss culture.

The man behind this “manibex” is Boston artist Edward Monovich, who’s doing an interdisciplinary project with Zurich evolutionary biologist Lukas Keller.

What other kinds of animals would you like to hear about? Contact the producer of this podcast on Twitter @SMisicka or on WordPress.

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Bruno Weber (1931-2011) left behind a legacy of the largest sculpture park of any individual artist. swissinfo.ch took a look inside with his widow, Maria Anna Weber.

The future of the Bruno Weber park outside Dietikon, near Zurich, is now secure. It’s pegged to become a listed heritage site about ten years from now.

A new board has taken a close look at the park and created a concept which charts its development, redevelopment and expansion phases in three, seven and 21-year periods.

Parallel to the industrialisation of the Limmat valley, Weber dedicated half a century to creating a work of art that reflects the relationship between people, nature and habitat. As the rapid development of the Limmat valley took shape, the oasis took on an enchanting nature – 15,000 m2 of buildings, sculptures, woodland and water gardens. In 2004 it was adopted as a certified protected site.

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In this new series, swissinfo.ch picture editors choose an image highlighting a news event of the past seven days. SWI swissinfo...

The cartoon of the week is a new series at swissinfo.ch. Cartoonist Marina Lutz has worked with different Swiss media as a caricaturist, including the Nebelspalter satirical magazine. Lutz has won several awards for her work, notably during the Fumetto inteational cartoon festival.

Click through to see the different images.

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Links

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Brexit – yes or no? If the United Kingdom were to leave the European Union, would it work out a series of bilateral agreements, similar to the ones between the EU and Switzerland?

Some Brits believe Switzerland has benefited from the bilateral approach. The Swiss-EU treaties give Switzerland direct access to the best parts of the EU: trade, transport and science projects – plus visa-less travel around Europe.

One thing the UK has in common with Switzerland since Brexit is coming to a vote: using direct democracy to determine its working relationship with the EU. Britons will decide on June 23 on whether or not to remain an EU member.

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