Swiss Commercial Register Extract: How to Read It and Find the Board
A Swiss commercial register extract lists everything the register holds about one company: its name, seat and address, legal form, purpose, capital, the people who sit on its board or manage it, how each of them may sign, and the auditor. Every line carries a reference to the journal entry that recorded it and to the SHAB notice that published it. The extract is free to view online, and a certified copy for a bank or an authority costs CHF 50 in Zurich and in Vaud.
Where to get the extract
Each of the 26 cantons keeps its own commercial register. The quickest route to the right one is Zefix, the federal index: search for the company name or its UID, open the result, and follow the link to the extract at the cantonal register.
- Online extract: free, current to the last entry, and without legal effect. Use it for your own checks.
- Extract with deleted entries: most cantonal portals offer a second view that also shows former names, former addresses and people who have left. Choose it when you need a company's history.
- Certified extract: ordered from the register office of the canton where the company has its seat, with a stamp and signature. Banks, notaries, courts and foreign authorities ask for this one.
What a register entry contains
The layout differs slightly from canton to canton, but the sections are the same everywhere because the Commercial Register Ordinance (HRegV) sets them.
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Header | UID (CHE-123.456.789), legal form, date of first entry, and whether the company is active, in liquidation or deleted |
| Company name | the registered name, in every language version the company registered, with former names in the extract with deleted entries |
| Seat and address | the commune of the seat and the legal address; "c/o" means the company has no office of its own and uses someone else's address |
| Capital | share capital and the amount paid in, the number, type and nominal value of shares; for a GmbH, the nominal capital |
| Purpose | what the articles allow the company to do, usually much wider than what it does today |
| Remarks | the publication organ, how shareholders are notified, transfer restrictions on shares, and whether the company has opted out of the limited audit |
| Contributions in kind | assets brought in instead of cash at founding or at a capital increase |
| Registered persons | board members, managers, authorised officers, the auditor, and for a GmbH its members and their capital contributions |
| Journal | each journal entry with its date, and the SHAB issue and date that published it |
Reading the lines: entries, deletions and the journal
An extract is a running record, never rewritten. Each line carries two reference numbers, shown in German extracts in the columns Ei and Lö. The first is the journal entry that recorded the line; the second, if present, is the journal entry that deleted it. Deleted lines stay on the extract with deleted entries and are struck through or printed in a different colour.
To date a change, look up its reference number in the journal at the bottom of the extract. The journal gives the date the cantonal office entered the change, and the number and date of the SHAB issue that published it. The SHAB date is the one to quote: that is when the change became public, and the notice itself is on shab.ch. Our guide to reading SHAB notices covers the wording of those publications.
Who sits on the board: the registered persons
Every registered person gets one line with the same fields: surname and given names, place of origin (Heimatort, for Swiss citizens) or nationality (for foreign citizens), place of residence, function, and signing authority. The place of origin is a Swiss citizen's commune of citizenship and says nothing about where the person lives; the place of residence does. Dates of birth and AHV numbers are held by the register and not published.
The function column uses a short, fixed vocabulary:
| Function in the extract | Meaning |
|---|---|
| President of the board (Präsident des Verwaltungsrates, président du conseil d'administration) | chairs the board of an AG or SA |
| Member of the board (Mitglied, membre) | board member without a specific office |
| Delegate of the board (Delegierter, délégué) | board member to whom management has been delegated |
| Secretary (non-member) | keeps the minutes; not part of the board |
| Managing director (Geschäftsführer, gérant) | runs a GmbH or Sàrl, or the day-to-day business of an AG |
| Member (Gesellschafter, associé) | holds capital in a GmbH or Sàrl; the extract gives the number and value of the capital contributions |
| Authorised officer (Prokurist, fondé de procuration) | signs for the company under a registered power of attorney |
| Auditor (Revisionsstelle, organe de révision) | an audit firm, listed with the persons |
The signing authority tells you whether the person can bind the company alone ("sole signature"), only together with a second authorised person ("joint signature by two"), or not at all ("no signing authority"). A contract signed by one person with joint signature does not bind the company on its own.
Swiss boards are small. Among the 102,847 active AGs whose board Prospex can reconstruct from SHAB notices (September 2026), 48% have a single board member, 31% have two, and fewer than 9% have four or more. 54% of those board members hold sole signature and 42% joint signature by two. In GmbHs, 68% have a single managing director. By law an AG must be representable by at least one person who lives in Switzerland (Art. 718 para. 4 CO), which is why a foreign-owned company's board often includes a local lawyer or fiduciary.
Finding the board of a company you only know by name
- Search the name on Zefix. If several companies come up, compare the seat and the UID with what you know.
- Open the cantonal extract and read the registered persons. Only open lines are current.
- Check the date of the last journal entry, which tells you how recent the board you are reading is.
The other direction, from a person to their companies, takes longer. Zefix only searches company names and UIDs, so use a full-text search for the name in the SHAB archive, which finds every notice that mentions them. Each Prospex company profile lists the current board and signatories, reconstructed from those SHAB notices and linked to the notice behind each line.
What the extract does not show
- The shareholders of an AG. They are recorded in the company's own share register, which is private. A GmbH is different: its members and their capital contributions are public.
- Financial statements. Only companies with outstanding bonds or listed shares must publish them (Art. 958e CO); our guide to Swiss company financial statements covers what is available.
- Debts and enforcement. These are in the debt enforcement register, which How to Check a Swiss Company explains how to query.
- The UID's VAT status. The UID register shows it.
An extract is a snapshot. To hear when anything on it changes, enter the company's UID below. Prospex sends you each new SHAB notice about it, free.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a Swiss commercial register entry contain?
- The company's name, seat, address, legal form, purpose and capital, the registered persons with their function and signing authority, the auditor, and a journal linking each change to its SHAB publication. Every entry also shows the UID.
- How can I find out who sits on the board of a Swiss company?
- Search the company on zefix.admin.ch and open the cantonal extract it links to. The registered persons section lists each board member with their function, place of residence and signing authority, free of charge.
- Is a free online extract from the Swiss register legally valid?
- No. Banks, notaries and foreign authorities ask for a certified extract, ordered from the register office of the canton where the company has its seat; it costs CHF 50 in Zurich and in Vaud.
- Are the shareholders of a Swiss AG shown in the register?
- No. An AG records its shareholders in its own share register, which is private. The members of a GmbH are public: the extract lists each one with the number and nominal value of their capital contributions.