Recruiting and training in three languages

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The labour market of the financial centre reflects this situation. Job advertisements from Geneva banks, trading houses and law firms almost always require French and English, and list German as an asset, sometimes as a requirement for positions that deal with head office or the authorities. Cross-border commuters, numbering 107,200 at the beginning of 2026, bring French; expatriates bring English and the languages of the clientele; the relatively small number of German-speaking Swiss settled in Geneva bring German.¹ The scarcity of trilingual profiles translates into a salary premium and into recruitment difficulties for compliance, legal and institutional relations functions, where German is necessary.

Institutions respond with training. Employer-funded language courses, secondments to German-speaking branches, exchange programmes between Geneva and Zurich and bilingual banking training form part of the human resources policies of the large houses. Geneva’s schools also play a role: compulsory education in Geneva introduces German before English, a choice contested by some parents but consistent with the federal policy of cohesion. The international schools, for their part, offer bilingual French-English curricula that train part of the next generation of the financial centre.²

Worked example. A Geneva trading house with 250 employees takes stock of the languages spoken by its staff. French is mastered by 92 per cent of employees, English by 95 per cent, German by 18 per cent, Spanish by 22 per cent, Portuguese by 12 per cent, Russian by 9 per cent and Arabic by 6 per cent. The trading and logistics functions operate in English with counterparties and in French among colleagues. Compliance and legal need German for their dealings with the federal authorities and the Zurich banks, while the Africa and Latin America teams use French, Portuguese and Spanish with their partners. The company decides to fund German courses for its control functions and to give priority to recruiting Portuguese-speaking profiles for its Africa office.

Notes

“Statistiques frontaliers 2026”, lesfrontaliers.ch, 27 April 2026, citing OCSTAT. ↩
HarmoS Concordat: the first foreign language, German in French-speaking Switzerland, is taught from the 5th school year at the latest, and the second foreign language, English, from the 7th year at the latest; HarmoS brochure of the espace romand de la formation, portail.rpn.ch (accessed September 2026). ↩

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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Recruiting and training in three languages

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?