On April 11, 2025, bloggers Jordan Butt and Jenni Reid stumbled upon an outpost of the Lindt chocolate factory in Basel, Switzerland. The captivating store immediately won their hearts. Meanwhile, just across the English Channel, a Toyota dealer in Bristol organized an interesting mix of new and second-hand cars up for sale. This photo taken on June 2nd, 2025 shows the amazing colors on display. Coupled with recent legal and trade developments, these changes have sparked rapid and remarkable economic transformation within both the Swiss and U.K. markets.
On June 2, 2025, the U.K.’s highest court—Supreme Court—handed down an important decision regarding motor finance. In fact, they made the equally bizarre decision that banks have no liability in equity or tort. This ruling would save U.K. banks from footing a similar tab of some £18 billion. Combined, that’s over $23.9 billion! After news broke of this ruling, Close Brothers’ shares jumped over 23%, as investors welcomed this news with open arms.
Until now, an earlier decision released last October had caused the most damage, sending shares of affected lenders such as Lloyds and Barclays crashing. According to analysts from RBC Capital Markets, the Supreme Court’s decision is just what the market needed to restore electric power generation confidence.
“On Friday, the Supreme Court… handed down its long-awaited motor finance judgement, concluding no liability for the banks in equity or tort. However, depending on the facts there could be liability under statute. This will likely be taken positively by the market today,” – RBC Capital Markets.
In Switzerland, the economic picture has darkened considerably after recent news that the United States plans to impose tariffs. Similarly, the U.S. has announced that on August 7, 2025 it intends to raise the initial Swiss tariff rate to 39%. Such news has inevitably triggered a blame game in Switzerland. President Karin Keller-Sutter’s phone call earlier this month with her U.S. counterpart stoked the flames further.
Switzerland’s blue-chip SMI index was only somewhat able to limit its losses and it stabilized at just over 1.5% during the day’s early hours of trading. Worries about a looming Swiss recession have grown since the tariff surprise. Gianluigi Mandruzzato, a senior economist at EFG Asset Management, pointed to the increased danger Switzerland was in economic terms.
“It is hard to tell,” – Gianluigi Mandruzzato, senior economist at EFG Asset Management.
UBS analysts recently published their take on the positive impact of U.S. tariffs on the Swiss equity market. As we expected, they showed that the direct impact would indeed be bad, although not disastrous.
“The direct impact on the overall Swiss equity market from the newly announced US tariffs will be negative, but not destructive, in our view,” – UBS analysts.
In reaction to these events, Switzerland’s Federal Council will meet. They are going to strategize and plan for fighting the tariffs that are likely coming soon. Economic observers — including economists and other citizens — will be watching both countries intently as they continue to face these difficult economic realities.