This is regulated by the IPRG (Federal Act on Private International Law), there the Art. 166 ff. Since 01.01.2019 there are profound changes and facilitations for the practice for foreign bankruptcy and insolvency administrators, who were previously not entitled to perform sovereign or even only debt enforcement acts in Switzerland due to the principle of territoriality.

In addition, Switzerland always required the opening of a "parallel bankruptcy" in Switzerland to protect domestic creditors.

Now, a foreign insolvency administrator (active legitimation from Art. 166 (1) IPRG) can apply to the competent court in the place where the assets are located (Art. 167 IPRG) for recognition of the foreign bankruptcy decree (e.g. the German insolvency decree) under the conditions of Art. 167 IPRG. For reasons of speed, an application for waiver of an auxiliary bankruptcy in Switzerland should also be filed (Art 174a IPRG). For recognition, the requirements of Art. 166 (1) IPRG must be met, in particular, there must be no ordre public illegality according to Art. 27 IPRG. With regard to the waiver of the auxiliary bankruptcy, the Swiss court will initiate a four-week debt call via the competent bankruptcy office and, if this is unsuccessful, grant the application. Then the assets can be collected directly or with the help of the bankruptcy office (e.g. payment of bank deposits, wages of the employer etc.).

Despite the proximity between Germany and Switzerland, very few such procedures were carried out, especially in the past, which will now change due to the facilitating conditions.

For questions and clarifications on this topic, Ms. Fassbender, attorney-at-law, is at your disposal for an initial brainstorming session. Please contact us!