Portrait of a mid-sized trading house

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Between the giants and the micro-enterprises, the centre counts dozens of mid-sized houses, employing between twenty and two hundred people and specialising by product or by region. A typical house in this segment trades one or two commodities, whether refined petroleum products, fertilisers, minor metals, rice or sugar, in one or two regional markets, such as West Africa, the Mediterranean or Central Asia. Owned by its founders, financed by transactional lines with two or three Geneva banks and by non-bank lenders, it employs traders, operators, a chief financial officer, a compliance officer and a few support functions.¹

These houses account for both the diversity and the vulnerability of the centre. They are the most exposed to the withdrawal of the banks, to compliance requirements, whose fixed cost weighs more heavily on them, and to competition from Dubai, where their founders can transfer a light operation. They are also the breeding ground of innovation and careers: the great traders of today often started out in such structures, whose niches are the ones the giants neglect. A policy for the centre that paid attention to these mid-sized houses, in matters of financing, training and regulatory proportionality, would preserve a part of the substance of Geneva commodity trading that the aggregate statistics do not show.

Notes

Geneva Solutions, “Swiss banks are turning their backs on commodity trading”, 2020, quoting Florence Schurch (STSA): nearly 85 per cent of members are companies with 2 to 20 employees; swissinfo.ch, 11 August 2025: around 80 per cent of Suissenégoce’s members are SMEs; ge.ch, “Les secteurs clés de Genève : négoce et fret maritime”: more than 400 companies in the sector and 12 banks specialising in international trade finance. ↩

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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Portrait of a mid-sized trading house

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?