This paper analyses the determinants of firm participation in the Swiss COVID-19 loan programme, which aims to bridge firms’ liquidity shortfalls that have resulted from the pandemic. State-guaranteed COVID-19 loans are widely used by Swiss firms, with 20% of all firms participating, resulting...

The so-called Swiss loans, i.e. consumer credit agreements expressed in Swiss Francs, can be compared to another famous Swiss product. Also the famous Swiss clocks and watches are characterized by a complex mechanism with many important parts guaranteeing an effective and proper functioning of...

A VAR analysis of Swiss data from 1987 to 2015 provides no evidence for significant long and short run influence of leverage on GDP, credit and the interest rate spread. Increasing capital requirements for banks should therefore have no strong negative macroeconomic effects.