What the trader expects from a financial centre

Read the PDF edition (2 pages)

Because the trader is mobile, the centre must offer what cannot be found elsewhere. Interviews and the surveys conducted by the professional associations converge on a list of expectations that the Geneva cluster meets unevenly.¹ Financing comes first: banks that understand the business, lines available on competitive terms, quick turnaround times. Legal certainty follows: enforceable contracts, reliable security interests, recognised arbitration, predictable authorities. Talent, taxation, air connections, the time zone and quality of life complete the list, with a weighting that varies from house to house.

These expectations define the policy for the financial centre that Part K sketches out. Geneva meets the legal and logistical expectations better than its competitors, the financial expectations less well than before 2020 and the tax expectations less well than Dubai. It compensates with a factor that the surveys rarely cite but that traders acknowledge in private: the density of a cluster in which everything can be settled in a single morning, between the bank, the inspector, the charterer, the insurer and the lawyer, within a perimeter that can be covered on foot. This density, inherited from the fifteenth-century fairs described in Part A, is the asset that is hardest to reproduce elsewhere.

Notes

Fondation Genève Place Financière, Rapport annuel 2024 (June 2025): 2024-2025 business survey noting “a slowdown in 2024 before an expected recovery in 2025”, the financial centre generating 38,000 jobs and 12.9 per cent of Geneva’s GDP; swissinfo.ch, 11 August 2025, interview with Sébastien Landerretche, president of Suissenégoce: around 80 per cent of members are SMEs, a sector that is “broadly stable, with structural adjustments”. ↩

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.

English

Contact

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.

Get in touch →

What the trader expects from a financial centre

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?