Suchergebnisse für ordentliche Kündigung

Welches «Too-big-to-fail»-Regime braucht die Schweiz?

On March 19, 2023, the Swiss Finance Minister together with the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA announced the rescue operation for Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss banking group. After having lost the confidence of its customers, creditors and investors and unprecedented deposit outflows a rescue operation by involving the state of Switzerland…

Berücksichtigung von ESG-Präferenzen im Finanzdienstleistungs­geschäft

On 1 January 2023, the Swiss Bankers Association’s «Guidelines for the financial service providers on the integration of ESG-preferences and ESG-risks into investment advice and portfolio management» entered into force. This marks the first binding Swiss (self-)regulation on Sustainable Finance at the point of sale. One of the key amendments includes the financial service providers’ duty to…

Der Limited Qualified Investor Fund (L-QIF) – Ein neuer Stern am Schweizer Fondshimmel?

The Swiss Federal Council (Bundesrat) recently submitted a bill to Parliament to amend the Collective Investment Schemes Act in order to introduce a new Swiss fund category – the Limited Qualified Investment Fund (L-QIF). Inspired by Luxembourg’s Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF), the L-QIF, other than the existing Swiss fund products, shall be exempt from FINMA approval and supervision…

Salärgovernance und neues Aktienrecht

In determining the compensation of directors and top management, the board of directors of public companies is faced with a structural conflict of interest. The aim to mitigate this conflict through an appropriate design of the procedure forms the essence of the say-on-pay rules introduced by the Swiss electorate in a public vote in 2013 and implemented on a transitional basis in the Ordinance…

Fairnessregeln für Mitarbeiterbefragungen in internen Untersuchungen bei Banken

Internal investigations are the appropriate instrument for banks to clarify misconduct within the company. Like other companies, they are obliged to this «catharsis». The core element of internal investigations are the so-called «employee interviews». These interviews can represent a conflict situation for the company em­ployees. In principle, there is a duty to cooperate and to tell the truth…

Die Auswirkungen des Covid-19-Solidarbürgschaftsgesetzes auf das Aktienrecht

In spring 2020, the Swiss Federal Council launched, among other things, the Covid-19 credit programme in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. About 20% of all Swiss corporations have subsequently taken out a Covid-19 loan. Initially, the Covid-19 Joint and Several Surety Ordinance («Covid-19-Solidarbürgschaftsverordnung») served as the legal basis of the credit programme. Later the ordinance was…

Kartellrechtliche Fragen bei der Gründung eines Joint Ventures

Opening up new markets or pursuing major projects can often only be achieved with partners, which is why companies form joint ventures. When planning and implementing such cooperation projects, economic and contractual considerations are in practice the main focus. However, the influence of antitrust law on this form of cooperation should not be underestimated. The relevance of antitrust law is…

Automatisierte Entscheidungen: Grundfragen aus der Perspektive des Privatrechts

Data protection law addresses the issue that more and more (complex) decisions are taken automatically. A closer look at the regulatory approaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Council of Europe’s Convention 108 and the draft Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (draft FADP) leads to two conclusions. On the one hand, the scope of application of these provisions is too…

Licht und Schatten der geplanten Reform der Einlagensicherung

The Swiss deposit insurance scheme is currently under review. In spring 2019, the Federal Council proposed a reform of the existing scheme and conducted a public consultation. In their comments, the…

Was ist «wirtschafts-verträgliches» Aktienrecht?

The last comprehensive overhaul of Swiss corporation law dates from 1991. The revised law was intended to provide more transparency, improve shareholder rights and set goalposts with respect to corporate organization and corporate powers. But the 1991 corporation law fell short of international standards, especially for listed companies. Numerous pieces of legislation and self-regulatory…

Konzept und Praxis der aktienrechtlichen Sanierung

This essay deals with capital loss and overindebtedness and the related duties of the Board of Directors according to the current Swiss Code of Obligations. Furthermore, a look is taken at the future Swiss restructuring law. It has been concluded that Swiss restructuring law does little credit to its name as most restructuring proceedings end in bankruptcy of the respective company. One possible…

Daten als Entgelt

The use of personal data as payment means in con­tractual relations is an economic reality that does not contradict the legal framework. In exchange for digital content a data subject may provide personal data to the supplier agreeing to have used them for further data processing. Under Swiss law, such kind of values’ exchange can be qualified as innominate contract that encompasses continuing…

Gewährleistung bei vernetzten Geräten

The networking of devices leads to new legal issues. The following article examines how contracts around networked devices are legally classified. In particular, it will be examined whether the classical warranty rights of sales and works contract law are sufficient to adequately protect the needs of individual users.

«Exit» aus der Nachlassstundung nach erfolgreicher Sanierung – ­Erste Erkenntnisse zum neuen Art. 296a SchKG

Under Swiss insolvency laws, companies in financial distress aiming at a restructuring rather than a winding-up can opt for a debt-restructuring moratorium (Nachlassstundung) as an alternative to bankruptcy proceedings. While composition proceedings are significantly less frequent in practice than formal bankruptcy proceedings, they are often used by major companies with numerous employees and a…

Wie die Arbeit, so der Lohn – Vergütung in privaten und kotierten Gesellschaften

Rising executive pay is a vital topic for shareholders, proxy advisors, academics and the wider public. It is worth noting that the remuneration of auditors for their audit services has hardly attracted shareholder attention even though falling audit fees may be a reason for weaknesses in corporate control. In this perspective it looks like an anomaly that the remuneration of the party…

Verwendung von Software aus dem Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz bei der Due Diligence im M&A- und Kapitalmarktbereich

This article is a first review of how artificial intelligence could be used in M&A and capital markets due dili­gence. Today available products have similar fields of application and functionality. They are mainly used in contract review. Their core function is to help to identify clauses of a certain type and to provide first summaries of contracts. They all have the ability to learn and thereby…

Legitimationsprüfung und Risikotransfer bei E-Mail-Zahlungsaufträgen

Fraudulent falsifications of payment orders have been a long-known issue in banking. Pursuant to statutory law banks are obliged to verify the authenticity and integrity of payment orders and, thus, bear the financial risks of undetected falsifications. In practice however, this legal situation is commonly, and permissibly, modi­fied by specific contractual clauses which transfer the financial…

Fusions-, Spaltungs- und Vermögensübertragungsverträge aus Sicht der Gesellschaft und der Gesellschafter

The Federal Act on Merger, Demerger, Transformation and Transfer of Assets (Merger Act) contains the minimal contents of the merger agreement, the demerger agreement and the transfer of assets agreement («the reorganisation agreement»). In addition, the Merger Act regulates which bodies of the involved companies have to give their consent to the reorganisation agreement and in which form to…

Wer kontrolliert die Aktiengesellschaft?

In Switzerland as in other countries, there is a perennial debate relating to the question of who controls a listed company, and whose interests a corporation should serve: the largest shareholders, minority shareholders, or other stakeholders? And what is the influence of management or the recent phenomenon of proxy advisors on decision-making in listed companies? The author analyzes the issues…

Stimmenmehrheit unter Verdacht: Wege und Irrwege im aktienrechtlichen Minderheitenschutz

Recent developments in the area of corporation law ­indicate a dichotomy between calls for more “shareholder democracy” and an increasing suspicion about “shareholders’ majority decisions”. Corporations have to date been governed following the model of “subjection of the minority to the majority”, with the steady approval of the courts. This guiding principle, which is at the core of a…

Der «aktuelle Liquiditätsplan» des Vorentwurfs – Ein neuer Fokus für Verwaltungsrat und Revisor in einer drohenden Finanznotlage

The current draft for a revised Corporation Law includes a complete overhaul of the provisions dealing with a financial crisis situation. So far, initiatives to be taken by the Board are triggered exclusively by a massive loss of equity (measured against share capital and legal reserves). The proposed law intends to focus the Board’s attention on liquidity problems and introduces a «liquidity…