Marketing a financial centre

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The competing centres invest in their own promotion. Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg have promotion agencies with considerable budgets, delegations in the main capitals and targeted campaigns aimed at businesses and wealthy individuals.¹ Geneva relies on the Fondation Genève Place Financière, on the national umbrella organisations, on the canton’s economic promotion office and on the Swiss representations abroad, with more modest means and a culture of discretion inherited from private banking. Long a strength, this discretion has become a relative weakness in the face of competitors that communicate without restraint.

Marketing a financial centre amounts to more than advertising. It includes presence in international forums, the publication of data and analysis, the hosting of conferences, support for businesses setting up and the mobilisation of networks of alumni, clients and partners. International Geneva offers the financial centre a setting for encounters that few competitors possess, as the Building Bridges summit described in Chapter II shows. A more assertive promotion, founded on the centre’s real strengths of stability, expertise, compliance, language and sustainability, without recourse to tax promises, would correspond to what Geneva has become.

Notes

Luxembourg for Finance, “About” page (luxembourgforfinance.com): public-private partnership between the Luxembourg State and PROFIL, the federation of the financial industry, founded in 2008 as the development agency for the financial centre and chaired by the Minister of Finance; Dubai International Financial Centre, “About” page (difc.ae): financial centre presenting itself as a platform between East and West, with independent regulation, a common law framework and a favourable tax regime. ↩

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.

My approach is to act as a trusted advisor who works directly with decision-makers, on an equal footing: I start from what you want to achieve and shape every structure, contract and tax decision around your commercial goals and how it improves your after-tax return. As “lawyers who make it happen”, my team and I stay involved until your company is set up, your structure is in place and your transaction has closed, and we remain available for any follow-on work that may be required. You benefit from bespoke solutions and personal attention, and sound, friendly and practical advice. We are not the lowest-cost provider in the market, nor do we intend to be; our aim is to deliver well-founded, proper solutions and excellent value for money.

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Marketing a financial centre

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?