Company bankruptcies Significantly more company bankruptcies in July

Company bankruptcies have skyrocketed in Switzerland. According to the business information service Dun & Bradstreet, bankruptcy proceedings were opened for a total of 469 companies in July. This is a third more than a year ago.

Insolvencies did not increase quite as much over the course of the year. According to the data, there were 3407 insolvency proceedings in the first seven months. That was an increase of 14 percent. In addition, 1576 companies (+4 percent) had to file for bankruptcy due to organizational deficiencies in accordance with Article 731b of the Swiss Code of Obligations.

Numerous insolvencies in Central Switzerland

The most pronounced increase in insolvencies this year was in Central Switzerland. There they climbed by 28%, driven by the cantons of Zug (+39%), Lucerne (+28%) and Schwyz (+26%).

The regions of Western Switzerland (+19%), Ticino (+15%) and Zurich (+15%) also recorded strong increases in the bankruptcy register, while insolvencies in Espace Mitteland rose by just 1%.

Slight growth in start-ups

The sharp rise in bankruptcies was offset by only slight growth in start-ups. From January to July, 31,654 new companies were registered in the Swiss Federal Commercial Register, 3% more than in the previous year.

The strongest increase in new companies was in French-speaking Switzerland (+7 percent), while no major changes were recorded in the other regions.