Regulatory

On 19 June 2020, the Swiss Parliament adopted the most important revision of Swiss corporate law in years, thus concluding a process started almost two decades ago. The revision also comes with a number of changes which, in particular, aim at clarifying certain aspects relating to insolvency triggers and bankruptcy filing obligations. Such clarification complements…

A modern interpretation of the writing requirements under the Swiss Code of Obligations By Christiana Fountoulakis (Reference: CapLaw-2020-16)

New rules for digital assets have been proposed by the Federal Council in its Dispatch to the Parliament of 27 November 2019 in Switzerland. This contribution provides a brief overview of the big picture, the key legal amendments related to distributed ledger technology, as well as the latest adjustments to the draft of the DLT-Rules…

A cornerstone of the DLT Draft Law aims at improving legal certainty in connection with the issuance and transfer of tokenized rights and financial instruments, such as bonds and shares. To that effect, the DLT Draft Law provides for the introduction of a new concept of so-called uncertificated register securities (Registerwertrechte) and specific rules in…

One key element of the DLT Draft Law concerns the question of how crypto-based assets are treated in bankruptcy. When it comes to storing such assets there are basically two options: either the owner of the crypto-based assets stores the tokens him/herself, or the tokens are stored by a third party custodian. Under current Swiss…

The Bill on the Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments of the Distributed Ledgers Technology of 27 November 2019 (the “DLT Bill“) which was sent to parliament addresses among other issues the question of conflicts of laws related to rights recorded on a distributed ledger. Considering the ubiquity of the potential…

The purpose of this article is to provide a first analysis of the key features and challenges, which will result from the shift from the current delegation rules under CISA to the new regulations on “delegation” pursuant to FinSA, FinIA and CISA. The new regulatory framework concerning the transfer of tasks to third parties covers…

The Federal Council aims to boost the attractiveness of Switzerland as a domicile for fund production with the proposed introduction of the Limited Qualified Investor Fund (L-QIF). The ongoing consultation period for the L-QIF was initiated on 26 June 2019 and will end on 17 October 2019. The L-QIF is an innovative financial product that may…