All About The Swiss Commercial Registry

Article by Eric W. Fiechter and André Gruber of Secretan Troyanov

Foreign counterparts dealing with Swiss companies often request various corporate documents to ascertain that the Swiss company not only may enter into the type of operation that is envisaged, but also that the officers signing on behalf of the company are allowed to do so (Board resolutions, By-laws, Statutes of Incorporation, etc.).

This is however neither sufficient nor adequate to ascertain that the Swiss company will indeed be validly bound.

The Commercial Registry ("Registre du Commerce" in French, "Handelsregister" in German), provides most of the information a party can and should request from its Swiss counterpart upon signing an important contract with a new business partner. This is a State operated public information tool.