Switzerland suffered the highest rise in bankruptcy proceedings in ten years in 2009, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

The number of proceedings opened against businesses or individuals rose to around 11,600, up eight per cent on 2008 - a “marked increase”, the Statistics Office said on Monday.

In addition, 2.5 million formal notices to pay were issued, just over two per cent more than in the previous year.

The number of ordinary and summary proceedings rose by four per cent. The resulting financial losses, in contrast, were 12 per cent lower than in 2008 at SFr306 million ($264 million).

This is actually the lowest loss in a decade and only 48 per cent of the record sum of SFr4.7 billion in 2004, noted the Statistics Office in a communiqué.

All regions saw a rise in bankruptcies, but Italian-speaking Ticino, financial centre Zurich and central Switzerland suffered the largest increases.

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