Our specialists are leaders in their field and cover the entire spectrum of finance, including
Niederer Kraft & Frey is a member of the UK Loan Markets Association and has developed its own Swiss law governed LMA style credit documentation which it uses in Swiss law governed finance transactions (both domestic and multi-jurisdictional).
Ever since our formation, we have been advising and representing Swiss and international banks, insurance companies, securities traders, fund companies, asset managers, institutional investors and other financial service providers on all regulatory and private-law aspects of their business operations and organisation.
In addition to providing general advice and expert opinions on special questions, our activities include to:
We are also one of the few Swiss law firms to specialize in the regulation of pension funds and investment foundations which we also represent in proceedings before the supervisory authorities. We further advise these institutions on questions regarding cooperation with custodian banks, asset managers and distributors.
We are up to date with the latest legal developments and official practices, and have quick access to decision makers. This is a further reason why leading Swiss and international institutions choose us for support in new, complex or critical matters.
We have extensive experience in advising and representing Swiss and foreign insurance and reinsurance companies, offering them comprehensive advice concerning their business operations, including
Swiss insurance and reinsurance companies trust our expertise in new forms of contract and novel regulatory matters, such as hybrid products or insurance wrappers.
We have recently relocated important, listed foreign insurance companies to Switzerland (immigration) and represented them vis-à-vis FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority). We have also accompanied a Swiss reinsurance company during its relocation abroad (emigration). Regarding both immigration and emigration of insurance and reinsurance companies, we structured and accompanied the first transactions of their kind in Switzerland.
The experts from our Banking & Finance team have extensive experience of both the avoidance as well as the successful handling of difficult investigations and proceedings involving supervisory and judicial authorities.
In close cooperation with our Dispute Resolution Team we represent various financial service providers in civil-law disputes and negotiations, both in and out of court.
A further important area of our work is the representation of regulated institutions and their corporate bodies during preliminary investigations and administrative proceedings (regulatory enforcement) by FINMA, other supervisory bodies or self-regulation bodies. We are also very actively involved in carrying out critical internal investigations for our clients, frequently for presentation to Swiss and foreign supervisory authorities.
We have in-depth experience in preparing, implementing and accompanying restructuring and recovery measures, both on behalf of the companies affected and as representatives of creditors (in particular creditor banks under financing arrangements).
Immediate and resolute action is key in distress situations and requires precise knowledge of the legal situation and a good sense of judgement gained by experience.
Our experts are also proficient in the field of special insolvency rules for financial institutions, including corresponding protective measures, and advise on capital adequacy requirements (and their provision via new capital market instruments), liquidity requirements, the avoidance of concentration risks, netting and automatic close-out matters as well as organisational measures in distress situations.
Our banking & finance restructuring experts work in close cooperation with our insolvency law specialists from our Dispute Resolution Team when representing parties in proceedings concerning the recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings and the coordination between domestic and foreign insolvency proceedings.