Number of company bankruptcies rises to record high in 2024
Keystone-SDA
In Switzerland, significantly more companies went bankrupt in 2024 than in 2023. The number of company bankruptcies climbed to a new high, the creditors’ association Creditreform announced.
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However, more companies were also founded last year.
Overall, company bankruptcies increased by 15% to 11,506 in 2024 as a whole. The number of pure corporate insolvencies (+18%), i.e. bankruptcy publications due to over-indebtedness, climbed particularly sharply. Meanwhile, bankruptcy publications due to deficiencies in the organisation increased by 6.6%.
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By canton, the increase was very high in Nidwalden, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Graubünden. This was primarily due to the generally low number of bankruptcies in these cantons. Expressed as a percentage, the increase was very rapid. In Zug, Geneva, Schwyz and Vaud, bankruptcies were at a high level.
Most bankruptcies in construction
In terms of sectors, every fifth company bankruptcy was attributable to the construction industry. Trade and business services each accounted for 18% of bankruptcies, while 11% of all bankruptcies were in the hospitality industry.
Creditreform experts expect another increase in bankruptcies in the new year. One reason for this is an amendment to the Federal Act on Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy, which has been in force since the beginning of the year.
This means that taxes, duties or other payments based on public law must now also be claimed by way of bankruptcy proceedings and no longer by seizure.
More company formations
Not only the number of company bankruptcies increased last year, but also the number of new start-ups. As announced by the Institut für Jungunternehmen (IFJ) on Tuesday, almost 53,000 new companies were registered in the commercial register in 2024. This was over 2% more than in 2023.
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Record number of start-ups founded in Switzerland in 2024
The IFJ figures are in line with those of Creditreform, which also counted just under 53,000 new start-ups. However, the picture is clouded by the 6.1% increase in deletions from the commercial register to 32,618. This resulted in a net decrease of 2.5% in movements in the commercial register.
A quarter of start-ups came from the business services sector. The entire tertiary sector, i.e. the service sector including gastronomy and trade, accounts for over 70% of start-ups, while manufacturing and construction together account for around 17%.
Private insolvencies are also on the rise
Last year, not only more companies but also more private individuals went bankrupt. According to Creditreform, the number of private bankruptcies rose by 6.2% to 8,779.
While the number of bankruptcy publications relating to deceased persons in particular had increased in recent years, there has recently been a significant increase in publications relating to living persons.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
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