简体 繁體 日本語 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Русский Українська English Deutsch Français Español Português Tiếng Việt Türkçe العربية עברית

Technology, language and the decade ahead: Parts I to K

Plan ₿ and the federal frame

Part I examined Lugano's attempt to define a role that does not depend on the Italian border. On 3 March 2022 the City of Lugano and Tether announced Plan ₿. The mayor presented it as an answer to the long decline of the city's banking model. A second memorandum of understanding of 3 March 2026 extended the cooperation to 2030 (Chapter I.I).1 Since 5 December 2023 every invoice of the city, including the municipal tax, can be paid in bitcoin or USDT.2 Bitcoin Suisse converts every payment into Swiss francs, so that the municipality never holds Kryptowerte und Digital Assets and its claims remain claims in francs. The chapter's legal finding was sober. Article 99 of the Federal Constitution, which since the vote of 8 March 2026 also declares the franc the Swiss monetary unit, reserves money and currency to the Confederation. Under Articles 2 and 3 of the Federal Act on Currency and Payment Instruments only federal coins, banknotes of the National Bank and sight deposits in francs at the National Bank are legal tender.3 The programme's economic effect remains unmeasured and its link with the banks and trading houses is thin. Its partner's reserve statements were found false by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2021.4

Chapter I.II set out the federal law within which any such development takes place. FINMA classified tokens in February 2018. The DLT Act, fully in force since 1 August 2021, created ledger-based securities in the Code of Obligations, the segregation of crypto-based assets in bankruptcy and the DLT trading facility.5 The consultation draft that the Federal Council opened on 22 October 2025 would introduce payment instrument institutions and crypto-institutions. For Lugano the decisive point lies elsewhere. Its natural clients live in Lombardy and Piedmont, where the European MiCA Regulation and the Italian decree of 2024 apply, so that a Lugano provider may serve them only at their exclusive initiative or through an establishment in the European Economic Area. Chapter I.III described the knowledge infrastructure that Ticino built between 1988 and 2012: the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), the national supercomputing centre CSCS, the Università della Svizzera italiana, whose first classes began on 21 October 1996, and SUPSI.6 The fintech sector in the narrow sense remains small. The main users of financial technology in Ticino are its established banks, asset managers and fiduciaries.

Italian as infrastructure

Part J was the counterpart to the Geneva volume's part on the French language. Chapter J.I began with a single statutory sentence: under Article 14 paragraph 1 of the Publications Act federal law is published simultaneously in German, French and Italian, with each of the three versions of an enactment equally binding.7 A relationship manager who reads the Anti-Money Laundering Act in Italian works with the law itself. Italian has been an official language of the Swiss state since 1798, a national language since 1848 and an expressly official language since 1938. The share of the permanent resident population naming Italian or a Ticinese or Italian-Grisons dialect as a main language fell from 11 per cent in 1970 to 8 per cent in 2020.8 Chapter J.I concluded that the equality of Italian is an institutional asset of the first order for Lugano. That asset depends on the quality of Italian legislation and on the presence of Italian speakers where Swiss financial regulation is conceived.

Chapter J.II turned to federal criminal justice. The Federal Criminal Court, which took up its work in Bellinzona on 1 April 2004, owes its seat to a decision of the Federal Assembly of 21 June 2002 that gave Italian Switzerland a federal institution of the first rank.9 It tries the federal cases of money laundering, corruption and international economic crime. On 31 January 2025 its Criminal Chamber convicted the Dutch parent company of the Trafigura group and others of bribing a foreign public official, fined the company CHF 3 million and ordered a compensatory claim of USD 145 million. Because an appeal was announced, the judgment was not final.10 About a tenth of the court's cases are conducted in Italian. Chapter J.III showed that the shared language with Italy is a double-edged instrument. A Ticinese società anonima is a Swiss company limited by shares under the Code of Obligations, while the Italian società per azioni belongs to the Codice civile of 1942. A precetto esecutivo, a pretore or a Ministero pubblico likewise carries a different meaning on each side of the border.11 The language unites the two legal orders in grammar and divides them in concepts.

Chapter J.III also set out the remedies. Drafters should decide which legal order governs a document and use its terminology consistently, explain foreign terms where they must appear and add language clauses that fix a prevailing version and tie the legal terms to the statutes of the governing law. Notarial deeds circulate between the two countries through the apostille under the Hague Convention, while Italian courts and Swiss register offices require translations and may examine the equivalence of foreign deeds. Banking documentation is safest when it speaks the client's language, even where Swiss law does not require it. The chapter's conclusion turned the risk into an asset: professionals who think in the concepts of Swiss law while understanding those of Italian law can translate concepts as well as words, which is the service Italian clients need.

Notes

  1. Matthew Allen, "Death, taxes and crypto: Lugano tethers ambitions to stablecoin", swissinfo.ch, 7 March 2022, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/death--taxes-and-crypto--lugano-tethers-ambitions-to-stablecoin/47409252; City of Lugano and Tether, Memorandum of Understanding: City of Lugano and Tether – Plan ₿ | Phase II, signed 3 March 2026, https://planb.lugano.ch/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/LVGA_Tether_Mou_EN.pdf. See Chapter I.I. ↩
  2. Città di Lugano, press release "Pagamenti in criptovalute delle fatture", 5 December 2023, https://www.lugano.ch/dam/jcr:4ee9230e-d978-42d8-8f8b-28717a175912/20231205-cs-pagamenti-criptovalute-fatture-lugano.pdf. ↩
  3. Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999 (Cst.), SR 101, Art. 99, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/1/10/101-99-117.html (text before the amendment of 8 March 2026, which inserted paras 1bis and 2bis); Federal Act on Currency and Payment Instruments of 22 December 1999 (CPIA), SR 941.10, Art. 2, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/9/94/941.10-2-5.html, and Art. 3, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/9/94/941.10-3-6.html. On the vote of 8 March 2026 see Chapter I.I. ↩
  4. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, press release 8450-21 of 15 October 2021, https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21. See Chapter I.I. ↩
  5. Federal Council, media release "Federal Council brings DLT Act fully into force and issues ordinance", 18 June 2021, https://www.admin.ch/en/nsb?id=84035. See Chapter I.II. ↩
  6. Università della Svizzera italiana, "History", https://usi.ch/en/history (first classes 21 October 1996). On IDSIA (1988), the CSCS (1991) and SUPSI (1997) see Chapter I.III. ↩
  7. Federal Act of 18 June 2004 on the Compilations of Federal Legislation and the Federal Gazette (Publications Act, PublA), SR 170.512, Art. 14 para. 1, text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/en-it/1/17/170.512-14-19.html. ↩
  8. Federal Statistical Office (FSO), "Languages", https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/languages-religions/languages.html, as cited in Chapter J.I. ↩
  9. Federal Criminal Court, "Cronistoria", https://www.bstger.ch/de/il-tribunale/cronistoria.html. On the decision of 21 June 2002 see Chapter J.II. ↩
  10. Federal Criminal Court, press release on judgment SK.2023.49 of 31 January 2025, https://www.bstger.ch/de/media/comunicati-stampa/2025/2025-01-31/1454.html; "Trafigura and ex-COO convicted of bribery by Swiss court", SWI swissinfo.ch, 31 January 2025, https://swissinfo.ch/eng/trafigura-and-ex-coo-convicted-of-bribery-by-swiss-court/88809216. On the appeal announced against the judgment see Chapter J.II. ↩
  11. See Chapter J.III. Codice civile of 1942, Art. 2325 ff. (società per azioni); on the società anonima see the Swiss Code of Obligations of 30 March 1911, SR 220, Art. 620 ff. ↩

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 August 2025.

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?

Helvetica Register is an information portal. It explains what companies and entrepreneurs from around the world, and in particular from Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, need to know about doing business in Switzerland: company law, commercial contracts, licences, banking, tax and residence.

Legal advice in Switzerland is provided by Ressos Legal, a Zurich law practice advising on all areas of Swiss law under the direction of Dr Alexander Ressos. Further information is available at www.ressos.ch.

Your project in Switzerland Speak to Dr Alexander Ressos Company formation, shareholder and commercial agreements, acquisitions, licences, bank accounts, tax and residence permits: I advise on Swiss law and coordinate with your lawyers in your home country, as well as local counsel in other jurisdictions as required.