Rare languages and the international clientele

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The clientele of the financial centre speaks many languages other than French and English. Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Persian, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish are the languages of significant private clienteles. Geneva institutions maintain teams of advisers who speak them. Transformed by the effect of sanctions, compliance requirements and the end of banking secrecy, the relationship with these clienteles remains an essential component of the financial centre, within a stricter framework. Language plays the same role there as it does for the French-speaking clientele: it founds trust and makes it possible to understand the client’s family, asset and political circumstances.

The difficulty specific to these languages is that of compliance. The original documents, the open sources, the registers and the press of the countries concerned are in languages and alphabets that not all compliance teams can read. Dependence on the advisers who speak them therefore creates a potential conflict of interest: the person who brings in the client is also the person who understands the client’s documents. Well-organised institutions separate the functions, recruit compliance staff with a command of the languages of their principal markets and use independent translators for sensitive files. Geneva, with its multilingual population and its faculty of translation, has the necessary resources, which it still has to mobilise.

Worked example. A Geneva bank prepares the documentation for an investment fund intended for a Swiss, French, Belgian and African private clientele. The prospectus and the key information document are drafted in French, the reference language, and then translated into English and German. The French drafting costs around CHF 40,000 in legal fees, and each translation, reviewed by a lawyer of the target language, around CHF 8,000. The annual updates represent one third of these amounts. The choice of French as the reference language makes it possible to serve the majority of the target clientele without translation. The English version, for its part, serves international investors and foreign supervisory authorities. Drafting in English as the reference language would have required a French translation for the principal clientele and a heavier legal review, for a total cost around one quarter higher.

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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Rare languages and the international clientele

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