Bankruptcies reach record level

A record number of companies went bankrupt in Switzerland in 2010, the association of creditors, Creditreform, said on Friday.

However, more new companies were also registered, and the total number of companies in Switzerland increased.

Company bankruptcies were up by 19.9 per cent against 2009, which was itself a record year.

However, Creditreform explained that the rise could largely be attributed to a change in the law.

The greatest increase in company bankruptcies was in central Switzerland, up by 42.9 per cent , and in canton Bern, where cases rose by 24.1 per cent. At the other end of the scale, in canton Zurich they were up by only 4.5 per cent.

Canton Bern also saw the greatest rise in the number of new firms registered, up by 16.9 per cent on 2009, while canton Zurich had the lowest, at 1.2 per cent.

Overall, there were an unprecedented 37,695 new registrations, up 2.3 per cent on 2009.

Creditreform warns that many of these new enterprises lack a solid enough basis, and are likely to disappear again in the next few years.

Furthermore, 25,523 companies were deregistered in 2010, eight per cent more than in 2009. The net increase of the number of registered companies was thus 12,172.