Swiss Life Restates Results After PwC Discovers Errors
In a further blow to the credibility of major Swiss financial institutions,
the country's largest life insurer, Swiss Life, has been forced to restate its
first-half losses, reporting a net loss for the first half of the year of SFr578
million ($383 million), SFr192 million more than it had announced in September.
Swiss insurance shares fell sharply, led by Swiss Life itself. “The new reporting error is very regrettable,” said Swiss Life’s
Chief Executive Officer, Roland Chlapowski, who recently replaced Manfred Zobl,
and has been struggling to bolster the company's credibility in advance of an
attempt to raise SFr1.2bn ($794m) of new capital needed to repair the damage
done by years of ill-considered acquisitions. In September, Swiss Life said
it would in future concentrate on its core life insurance business, focusing
on Switzerland and key European markets. “It reveals weaknesses in the project management in implementing the new
securities administration system… We will follow up accordingly… and
strengthen the accounting team,” he added. Andres Leuenberger, chairman of the board at Swiss Life said the group planned
to strengthen its internal controls and that there would be no repeat of such
incidents in the future. The company said that the error in its latest half
year results did not affect the group's reported equity position and the planned
capital increase remained unaffected. .
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