From traders to groups: professionalisation

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The trading houses of the 2010s no longer resemble those of the 1980s. The growth in volumes, the entry of banks into their capital or their financing, the demands of the authorities and criminal proceedings have imposed a professionalisation whose structures Chapter II describes. The compliance, risk management, finance and legal functions, almost non-existent in the early houses, now employ hundreds of people in the largest of them. Boards of directors have opened up to independent directors, and annual reports, long non-existent for private companies, are published by several houses to reassure their financiers and their partners.¹

This evolution has changed the relationship between commodity trading and the financial centre. The trading houses have become financial groups as much as commercial ones: they borrow on the bond markets, manage considerable derivatives portfolios and invest in industrial and logistical assets, to the point that their balance sheets compare with those of mid-sized banks. Part H shows that this financialisation has brought the requirements applied to them closer to those of financial institutions, without Swiss law subjecting them to prudential supervision. Geneva’s commodity trading in 2026 is a mature sector, whose founders are giving way to salaried managers and whose original culture is passed on with the inflections that the cases have imposed.

Notes

Trafigura, “Financial reports” (trafigura.com): “We have published our financial results every year since 2013, providing industry-leading transparency and disclosure”; annual reports available from 2013 to 2025; Gunvor Group, “Results 2022” (gunvorgroup.com); Trafigura, press release of 24 September 2024: Richard Holtum chief executive from 1 January 2025, Jeremy Weir, chief executive since March 2014, becoming chairman of the board; Wikipedia (en), art. “Gunvor”: management buyout on 1 December 2025, the company being owned by more than 90 employees. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

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From traders to groups: professionalisation

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?