Company bankruptcies on the rise in Switzerland

Company bankruptcies rise by almost 20 per cent in the first three quarters Keystone-SDA

There have been significantly more bankruptcies in Switzerland this year. The construction, catering and retail sectors in particular have suffered.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Company bankruptcies climbed by 19.5% from January to September compared to the same period last year, according to the economic information service Crif on Thursday. Specifically, 8,387 companies went bankrupt in the first nine months of the year.

According to Crif, most bankruptcies were in the construction industry (1,192 cases), followed by catering (872) and retail (606). One reason for the increase is a change in the law. Since January 1, 2025, tax debts of companies in the commercial register can also be claimed in bankruptcy proceedings. Previously, it was only possible for the tax authorities to collect outstanding taxes by seizure.

At the same time, the number of company formations remains at a high level: between January and September 2025, a total of 40,867 new companies were entered in the commercial register. An increase of 4.3% compared to the previous year.

By sector, the retail trade (3,287 start-ups), management consultancy (3,273) and the property sector (2,920) led the field of new start-ups.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].

News