Federal Council brings DLT Act fully into force and issues ordinance

Bern, 18.06.2021 - During its meeting on 18 June 2021, the Federal Council brought the Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Electronic Register Technology fully into force as of 1 August 2021. The associated blanket ordinance will also enter into force on the same day. This will allow for innovative DLT trading facilities and increase legal certainty in the event of bankruptcy.

In September 2020, Parliament passed the distributed ledger technology (DLT) blanket act, which selectively adapts ten existing federal laws. The blanket ordinance that has now been adopted summarises the necessary adjustments to ten ordinances. The legislation improves the conditions for blockchain and DLT companies in Switzerland, thereby making the country an international pioneer in modern regulation of innovative financial market technologies.

One of the key changes that will come into force on 1 August 2021 is a licence for DLT trading facilities, i.e. financial market infrastructures for DLT securities that can admit other companies and persons to trading in addition to financial intermediaries. Legal certainty will be increased in insolvency law by explicitly regulating the segregation of cryptobased assets in the event of bankruptcy.

The adopted amendments to the Swiss Code of Obligations, among others, already came into force on 1 February 2021. These enabled the introduction of uncertificated securities on a blockchain. No amendments at ordinance level were necessary for those provisions.


Address for enquiries

Communications
State Secretariat for International Finance SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 46 16, info@sif.admin.ch



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The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html

State Secretariat for International Financial Matters
http://www.sif.admin.ch

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