The tax treatment of financial restructuring measures can significantly impact a company’s financial position.
Introductory remarks
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is currently causing concern and uncertainty and poses challenges to companies and individuals alike. A number of legal issues are also emerging, whether in relation to contractual obligations, labour law matters or corporate law aspects. This article aims to highlight the most important points from a Swiss law perspective and to clarify legal issues in the elaboration of possible courses of action.
1. Commercial contracts
1.1 Force majeure
Um was geht es?
Dieser Artikel beschreibt in Kürze das freiwillige Liquidationsverfahren einer Gesellschaft aufgrund eines Sonderbeschlusses seiner Aktionäre.
Was muss ich tun?
Beschlussfassung der Gesellschafter
As Switzerland maintains a quite strict legal regime governing the director’s liability, it is immanent for each person holding a board function to know the rules and risks as well the legal consequences in this respect. During the last couple of years Switzerland has introduced various new rules influencing the director’s liability (new transparency rules for management compensations in listed companies, a comprehensive revision of the audit legislation and new statutory rules governing financial accounting), which are mainly applicable for listed companies.
Swiss Civil Procedure Law in a Nutshell (Volume 11 of 12)
This blog series provides litigators and corporate counsel from other jurisdictions with a practical understanding of the mechanics, advantages, and limits of litigation before State Courts in Switzerland.
Enforcement of Money Claims
Money claims are enforced by virtue of the Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law. The creditor may either initiate enforcement by virtue of an ex parte freezing order (attachment) or else by a normal summons to pay.
On 1 January 2019, the revised Section of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA) regarding cross-border insolvencies entered into force. The revision became necessary as the previous regulation was criticised in particular for its protectionist elements, which also were a recurring topic in discussions with foreign colleagues and insolvency practitioners. Particularly compared to other European countries, Switzerland had apparent modernisation potential.
On 8 March 2019 the consultation on the partial revision of the banking act was initiated by the Federal Council. The amendments have an impact on bank restructurings, deposit insurance and intermediated securities. The consultation period will close on 14 June 2019.
Insolvency and restructuring measures
On March 8, 2019, the Swiss Federal Council instructed the Federal Department of Finance to initiate the consultation process on proposed amendments to the Banking Act.
The proposed amendments aim at increasing the effectiveness, and legal basis, of certain bank resolution measures and related topics.
Interested parties can comment on the draft proposal until June 14, 2019.
Restructuring procedure for banks
After publishing a very comprehensive report on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain in last December, the Federal Council initiated during its meeting on 22 March 2019 the next step by a public consultation on the adaptation of specific federal law provisions to developments in DLT and blockchain. This further underlines the emphasis of the Federal Council on creating the best possible framework to allow Switzerland to establish itself as a leading, innovative and sustainable location for fintech and DLT companies.