Luc Defferrard and Tervel Stoyanov, Walder Wyss Ltd
This is an extract from the 2020 edition of GRR's the Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.
In summary
NOVEMBER 2020 Corona: directors’ duties and restructuring options in the BeNeLuCh Corona: directors’ duties and restructuring options in the BeNeLuCh I Introduction The rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is leading to far-reaching health and safety measures all around the world. For people at home, but also for businesses, this creates a situation of great uncertainty. Certain governments have taken (extensive) measures to help businesses and its employees.
The Swiss Insurance Oversight Act has been subject to a partial revision in order to bring the protection of insurance customers in line with international developments and to improve the competitiveness of the Swiss insurance sector. The new provisions include a new insolvency restructuring regime, a customer categorisation making supervisory requirements proportional to the protection required by customers as well as new rules of conduct applicable to insurance undertakings and intermediaries.
On 1st January 2019, the revised Swiss Law on Cross-Border Insolvencies entered into force. The first experiences with the revised law are throughout positive and show that the newly introduced simplifications of the Swiss cross-border insolvency regime are increasingly used by foreign liquidators and their counsels.
Previous regime
I. BESCHLUSS DES BUNDESRATS VOM 14. OKTOBER 2020
In der Sitzung vom 14. Oktober 2020 hat der Bundesrat beschlossen, die vorübergehenden Massnahmen zur Verhinderung von coronabedingten Konkursen nicht zu verlängern. Gleichzeitig setzte er aber die vom Parlament im Rahmen der Aktienrechtsrevision beschlossene mögliche Verlängerung der provisorischen Nachlassstundung bereits auf den 20. Oktober 2020 in Kraft.
On 16 April 2020, the Swiss Federal Council enacted the COVID-19 Insolvency Ordinance. One of its main goals was to relieve pressure on executive bodies of Swiss entities to request the opening of insolvency proceedings. Relief was targeted at overindebtedness situations caused by negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on liquidity, earnings and going-concern prospects. Further, the Swiss Federal Council put in place a special COVID-19 moratorium which was designed for SMEs. On 14 October 2020, the Swiss Federal Council decided not to extend such measures beyond 19 October 2020.
The new set of Swiss laws on blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT; Blockchain/DLT Laws) has been approved by the Swiss Parliament on 25 September 2020 and is thus now in final form. Subject to a referendum, which is unlikely, the Blockchain/DLT Laws will presumably enter into force early next year.
The main topics of the Blockchain/DLT Laws are:
Le 16 avril 2020, le Conseil fédéral avait adopté l'Ordonnance COVID-19 insolvabilité. L'un de ses principaux objectifs était de diminuer la pression subie par les organes d'administration des entreprises suisses quant à leur obligation d'aviser le juge d'un surendettement (« dépôt du bilan »). L'allègement visait principalement les situations de surendettement causées par les effets négatifs de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur les liquidités, le bénéfice et les perspectives de continuité d'exploitation.
LAW & TAX Swiss Restructuring & Insolvency in a nutshell loyensloeff.com LAW & TAX Introduction Ever-changing market conditions require businesses to continuously monitor their earnings and liquidity situation as well as their debt structure. In addition, the overall economic situation remains uncertain and asks for continued operational flexibility and resilience. Thus, it is not surprising that companies need to rethink their organisational obligations in restructuring and insolvency situations.