On 25 September 2020, the Swiss Parliament unanimously adopted the Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), thereby amending specific provisions in ten existing federal acts. This has further improved the framework conditions for Switzerland to become a leading, innovative and sustainable location for blockchain and DLT companies.

A blanket ordinance is now planned to incorporate the legislative amendments voted by Parliament into law at federal ordinance level.

The consultation of the cantons, parties and other interested groups will run until 2 February 2021. It is expected that the Federal Council will bring the amendments to the acts and ordinances into force on 1 August 2021. However, it is planned that the amendments to the Financial Services Act and the Financial Institutions Act that were adopted by Parliament as part of the DLT bill will enter into force earlier. These amendments limit the ombudsman affiliation requirement for specific financial service providers.

Consultation initiated on blanket ordinance in area of blockchain