Bankruptcies in Geneva and Romandie: September 2026

In September 2026, the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC) published 566 bankruptcy proceedings across the six French-speaking cantons (Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Fribourg and Jura), including 138 in Geneva. The total adds up bankruptcy publications with a call to creditors (202) and suspensions for lack of assets (364). Every canton uses these two types of publication in the same way, which makes them comparable. This is a count of publications, not of distinct debtors.

Bankruptcy offices often publish in batches, so monthly figures can swing sharply without any underlying change. The twelve-month total is a more reliable guide to the trend than any single month. Over twelve months (October 2025 to September 2026), 7,215 bankruptcies were published in French-speaking Switzerland, up 34.3% on the previous twelve months.

For September 2026 alone, 267 proceedings concern companies, 90 individuals and 209 estates. This barometer by Ark Fiduciaire is computed automatically from the official publications and updated every month; the method and the full downloadable history are at the end of the article.

Key figures for September 2026

• 7,215 bankruptcies published in French-speaking Switzerland over twelve months, up 34.3% on the previous twelve months (5,373).
• 2,164 in Geneva over twelve months, up 45.5% (1,487 in the previous twelve months).
• In September 2026: 566 bankruptcies published in the region, including 138 in Geneva (668 in August 2026, 376 in September 2025).
• 364 proceedings suspended for lack of assets, 64.3% of the total.
• 267 company bankruptcies, including 21 liquidations ordered for organisational deficiencies (art. 731b CO).
• Since January, 5,584 bankruptcies published, up 37.7% on the same period of 2025 (4,054).

Bankruptcies by canton

The table gives bankruptcies published in September 2026, the previous month and the same month last year, then the twelve-month total compared with the previous twelve months.

Monthly figures depend on each office's publication rhythm; only the twelve-month change is given as a percentage.

Companies, individuals and estates

The type of debtor is read from the structured field of each publication. Estates include estates renounced by the heirs, which the bankruptcy office liquidates. In September 2026, 209 bankruptcies in the region concerned an estate.

Year to date (January to September 2026)

Thirteen-month trend

Bankruptcies published each month in Geneva and across the six French-speaking cantons, with the number of suspensions for lack of assets.

How to read these figures

A published bankruptcy does not always mean that an active business disappears. A large share of proceedings is suspended for lack of assets (art. 230 DEBA): the office finds that the assets do not cover the costs of the proceedings, which stop unless a creditor advances the costs.

Year-on-year comparisons should also take into account the revision of the Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (DEBA) against the abusive use of bankruptcy, in force since 1 January 2025: since then, public-law claims such as taxes and social contributions are in principle enforced by bankruptcy, rather than by seizure, against debtors entered in the commercial register. Part of the increase seen since 2025 may stem from this.

Estates renounced by the heirs are liquidated by the bankruptcy office (art. 193 DEBA) and therefore appear in these figures, with no link to any business activity. Likewise, a company whose organisation is incomplete can be dissolved by the court and liquidated under bankruptcy rules (art. 731b CO).

For directors, warning signs appear well before bankruptcy: tight liquidity, capital loss, over-indebtedness. In case of over-indebtedness, the board must in principle notify the court (art. 725b CO). Ark Fiduciaire supports companies in Geneva with their day-to-day corporate matters. For a specific question, get in touch.

Methodology

• Source: publications of the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC), bankruptcy heading, retrieved through the portal's public interface on 26 October 2026.
• Bankruptcies: publications under sub-headings KK02 ("publication of bankruptcy/call to creditors") and KK03 ("suspension of bankruptcy proceedings") of the six French-speaking cantons.
• Why not opening notices: sub-heading KK01 ("preliminary notice of the opening of bankruptcy") is used very unevenly by the cantons, almost systematically in Geneva and rarely elsewhere, so it cannot be used to compare cantons.
• Date used: the SOGC publication date, which comes a few weeks after the bankruptcy judgment.
• Counting: one publication counts as one proceeding. A proceeding suspended and later resumed after a cost advance, or a corrected publication, can be counted twice; such cases are rare.
• Checks: 4,916 KK02 and 7,672 KK03 publications processed over the period covered; 566 publications of the month read in full; 1 duplicate company UID detected; 5 publication(s) with a free-text debtor qualification, classed as an estate when the text says so, otherwise as an individual.
• Personal data: the report only publishes aggregates. No names of people or companies are included.
• Revisions: a publication cancelled or corrected after retrieval may slightly change the figures.

Cite this data

Journalists and researchers may use these figures with the following attribution:

Ark Fiduciaire, "Bankruptcies in Geneva and French-speaking Switzerland, monthly statistics", based on the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC), data for September 2026. https://ark-fid.ch/en/ressources/articles/faillites-geneve-suisse-romande-statistiques/

Data in CSV format: full history and September 2026.

See also

• New companies in Geneva and French-speaking Switzerland: monthly statistics
• Bankruptcy risks: directors' liability
• Liquidating a company in Switzerland
• Corporate services with Ark Fiduciaire