1. BASIS OF INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE LAW
1.1 Sources of Insurance and Reinsurance Law
The Swiss legal framework for private insurance is based in
particular on the laws and regulations set out below.
Federal Regulations
The Federal Insurance Contract Act (ICA) and, subsidiarily, the
Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) govern the contractual relationship
between insurer, policyholder and insured (Article 100 paragraph 1
ICA). The ICA applies to direct insurance contracts underwritten by
insurance undertakings subject to supervision by the Swiss
Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA (FINMA; Article 101
paragraph 1 No 2 e contrario ICA). Reinsurance contracts are
outside the scope of the ICA and are consequently only subject to
the general contract law provisions of the CO (Article 101
paragraph 1 No 1 ICA; see 6.6 Consumer Contacts or
Reinsurance Contracts). The partial revision was adopted
by Swiss parliament in summer 2020 (revICA; see 12 Recent
