{"id":16725,"date":"2026-01-19T15:26:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=16725"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:16:17","slug":"switzerland-faces-isds-claims-over-credit-suisse-at1-bond-write-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2026\/01\/19\/switzerland-faces-isds-claims-over-credit-suisse-at1-bond-write-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland faces ISDS claims over Credit Suisse AT1 bond write-off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Groups of Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bondholders have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/japanese-investors-sue-switzerland-over-credit-suisses-at1-write-down-law-firm-2025-12-04\/\">initiated two investor-state dispute settlement<\/a> (<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips43'>ISDS<\/span>) claims against Switzerland. Reports from specialized media outlets indicate that the Swiss government has received at least nine notices of dispute under various investment treaties following the state-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iareporter.com\/articles\/switzerland-is-hit-with-second-treaty-arbitration-over-credit-suisse-rescue-takeover\/\">here<\/a>; behind paywall). The disputes center on the write-off of AT1 bonds\u2014valued at approximately CHF 16 billion\u2014as part of the March 2023 emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by its competitor, UBS. The write-off was mandated by a decree from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The ISDS claims follow significant developments in the Swiss domestic judiciary. In October 2025, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bvger.ch\/media-releases\/3eeb1c4b-6120-4804-9512-271477ebb52a\/de\/b-2334-2023_te.pdf\">Federal Administrative Tribunal annulled FINMA\u2019s write-off decree<\/a>. The Tribunal ruled that the specific contractual or regulatory &#8220;trigger event&#8221; required to write down the bonds had not legally occurred at the time of the order. This judgment was subsequently appealed to Switzerland\u2019s apex court, the Federal Tribunal. The Federal Tribunal has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srf.ch\/news\/wirtschaft\/aufschiebende-wirkung-at1-abschreibung-der-credit-suisse-anleihen-bleiben-wertlos\">provisionally suspended<\/a> the effects of the lower court&#8217;s annulment. Consequently, the write-off remains in effect pending a final decision from the country&#8217;s highest judicial authority.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips43','investor\u2013state dispute settlement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips58','soluci\u00f3n de controversias inversionista-Estado'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips104','responsabilit\u00e9 sociale des entreprises'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips114','Sistema de Tribunales de Inversiones'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Groups of Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bondholders have initiated two investor-state dispute settlement (<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips43'>ISDS<\/span>) claims against Switzerland.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips43','investor\u2013state dispute settlement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips58','soluci\u00f3n de controversias inversionista-Estado'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":16950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17293,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16725\/revisions\/17293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}