BONDPARTNERS SA (BPL) is a Swiss financial services company which was founded in 1972. It is authorized under the Federal Act on financial institutions (FinIA) and is therefore subjected to the control of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). In addition, BPL is member of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), member of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and reporting member of the Swiss Stock Exchange.

Based in Lausanne, BPL is listed on the OTC-X market of the Bern Cantonal Bank. It carries out various trading, intermediation and brokerage activities oriented towards professional and institutional investors such as banks, asset managers, provident funds, investment firms and insurance companies, brokerage firms and other financial intermediaries. It is considered to be amongst the important European organizations in this industry.

Of course, we would never dream of plagiarising Satoshi Tajiri’s famous and highly lucrative creation: by portraying certain animals, being part of the stock market metaphorical bestiary, in the style of the Pokémon cards so popular with the youngsters among us, we are merely making a playful cultural reference.

Readers will be aware that financial market professionals often refer to animals – sometimes imaginary ones like unicorns – to refer to economic situations, behaviours and phenomena that sometimes may be obscure to the uninitiated. Accordingly, expressions taken from the animal kingdom have entered common financial parlance. For example, if central bank officials are more focused on ensuring price stability, they are described as hawks, whereas if they are keener on growth and employment they are referred to as doves. Investors who expect prices to rise are bulls, while those that expect them to fall are bears.