Un­der­tak­ings that are re­quired by law to have an or­din­ary audit must:

1.

provide ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion in the notes to the an­nu­al ac­counts;

2.

pre­pare a cash flow state­ment as part of the an­nu­al ac­counts;

3.

draw up a man­age­ment re­port.

The notes to the an­nu­al ac­counts must also con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

1.

long-term in­terest-bear­ing li­ab­il­it­ies, ar­ranged ac­cord­ing to due date with­in one to five years or after five years;

2.

on the fees paid to the aud­it­or, with sep­ar­ate items for audit ser­vices and oth­er ser­vices.

The cash flow state­ment presents sep­ar­ately changes in cash and cash equi­val­ents from busi­ness op­er­a­tions, in­vest­ment activ­it­ies and fin­an­cing activ­it­ies.

¹The man­age­ment re­port presents the busi­ness per­form­ance and the eco­nom­ic po­s­i­tion of the un­der­tak­ing and, if ap­plic­able, of the cor­por­ate group at the end of the fin­an­cial year from points of view not covered in the an­nu­al ac­counts.

²The man­age­ment re­port must in par­tic­u­lar provide in­form­a­tion on:

1.

the num­ber of full-time po­s­i­tions on an­nu­al av­er­age;

2.

the con­duct of a risk as­sess­ment;

3.

or­ders and as­sign­ments;

4.

re­search and de­vel­op­ment activ­it­ies;

5.

ex­traordin­ary events;

6.

fu­ture pro­spects.

³The man­age­ment re­port must not con­tra­dict the eco­nom­ic po­s­i­tion presen­ted in the an­nu­al ac­counts.

¹The ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion in the notes to the an­nu­al ac­counts, the cash flow state­ment and the man­age­ment re­port may be dis­pensed with if the un­der­tak­ing it­self or a leg­al en­tity con­trolling the un­der­tak­ing pre­pares con­sol­id­ated ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing stand­ard.

²The fol­low­ing per­sons may re­quest fin­an­cial re­ports in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions in this Sec­tion:

1.

com­pany mem­bers who rep­res­ent at least 10 per cent of the ba­sic cap­it­al;

2.

10 per cent of co­oper­at­ive mem­bers or 20 per cent of the mem­bers of an as­so­ci­ation;

3.

any com­pany mem­ber or any mem­ber sub­ject to per­son­al li­ab­il­ity or a duty to pay in fur­ther cap­it­al.

¹In ad­di­tion to an­nu­al ac­counts un­der this Title, the fol­low­ing must pre­pare fin­an­cial state­ments in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing stand­ard:

1.

com­pan­ies whose equity se­cur­it­ies are lis­ted on a stock mar­ket, if the stock mar­ket so re­quires;

2.

co­oper­at­ives with a min­im­um of 2000 mem­bers;

3.

found­a­tions that are re­quired by law to have an or­din­ary audit.

²The fol­low­ing may also re­quest fin­an­cial state­ments in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised stand­ard:

1.

com­pany mem­bers who rep­res­ent at least 20 per cent of the ba­sic cap­it­al;

2.

10 per cent of co­oper­at­ive mem­bers or 20 per cent of the mem­bers of an as­so­ci­ation;

3.

any com­pany mem­ber or any mem­ber sub­ject to per­son­al li­ab­il­ity or a duty to pay in fur­ther cap­it­al.

³The duty to pre­pare fin­an­cial state­ments in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised stand­ard ceases to ap­ply if con­sol­id­ated ac­counts are pre­pared in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised stand­ard.

⁴The su­preme man­age­ment or ad­min­is­trat­ive body is re­spons­ible for choos­ing the re­cog­nised stand­ard, un­less the Art­icles of As­so­ci­ation, the by-laws or the found­a­tion deed provide oth­er­wise or the su­preme man­age­ment body fails to spe­cify the re­cog­nised stand­ard.

¹If fin­an­cial state­ments are pre­pared in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing stand­ard, de­tails of the stand­ard must be giv­en in the fin­an­cial state­ments.

²The chosen re­cog­nised stand­ard must be ap­plied in its en­tirely and for the fin­an­cial state­ments as a whole.

³Com­pli­ance with the re­cog­nised stand­ard must be veri­fied by a qual­i­fied audit spe­cial­ist. An or­din­ary audit must be made of the fin­an­cial state­ments.

⁴Fin­an­cial state­ments in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised stand­ard must be sub­mit­ted to the su­preme man­age­ment body when the an­nu­al ac­counts are sub­mit­ted for ap­prov­al, al­though they do not re­quire ap­prov­al.

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the re­cog­nised stand­ards. It may stip­u­late re­quire­ments that must be met when choos­ing a stand­ard or when chan­ging from one stand­ard to an­oth­er.

¹Where a leg­al en­tity that is re­quired to file fin­an­cial re­ports con­trols one or more un­der­tak­ings that are re­quired to file fin­an­cial re­ports, the en­tity must pre­pare con­sol­id­ated an­nu­al ac­counts (con­sol­id­ated ac­counts) in the an­nu­al re­port for all the un­der­tak­ings con­trolled.

²A leg­al en­tity con­trols an­oth­er un­der­tak­ing if it:

1.

dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly holds a ma­jor­ity of votes in the highest man­age­ment body;

2.

dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly has the right to ap­point or re­move a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of the su­preme man­age­ment or ad­min­is­trat­ive body; or

3.

it is able to ex­er­cise a con­trolling in­flu­ence based on the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation, the found­a­tion deed, a con­tract or com­par­able in­stru­ments.

³A re­cog­nised stand­ard un­der Art­icle 963b may define the group of un­der­tak­ings.

⁴As­so­ci­ations, found­a­tions and co­oper­at­ives may del­eg­ate the duty to pre­pare con­sol­id­ated ac­counts to a con­trolled un­der­tak­ing provided the con­trolled un­der­tak­ing con­cerned brings all the oth­er un­der­tak­ings to­geth­er un­der a single man­age­ment by hold­ing a vot­ing ma­jor­ity or in any oth­er way and proves that it ac­tu­ally ex­er­cises con­trol.

¹A leg­al en­tity is ex­empt from the duty to pre­pare con­sol­id­ated ac­counts if it:

1.

to­geth­er with the con­trolled un­der­tak­ing has not ex­ceeded two of the fol­low­ing thresholds in two suc­cess­ive fin­an­cial years:

a.

a bal­ance sheet total of 20 mil­lion francs,

b.

sales rev­en­ue of 40 mil­lion francs,

c.

250 full-time po­s­i­tions on an­nu­al av­er­age;

2.

is con­trolled by an un­der­tak­ing whose con­sol­id­ated ac­counts have been pre­pared and audited in ac­cord­ance with Swiss or equi­val­ent for­eign reg­u­la­tions; or

3.

it has del­eg­ated the duty to pre­pare con­sol­id­ated ac­counts to a con­trolled un­der­tak­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 963 para­graph 4.

²Con­sol­id­ated ac­counts must non­ethe­less be pre­pared where:

1.

this is ne­ces­sary in or­der to make the most re­li­able as­sess­ment of the eco­nom­ic po­s­i­tion;

2.

com­pany mem­bers who rep­res­ent at least 20 per cent of the ba­sic cap­it­al or 10 per cent of the mem­bers of a co­oper­at­ive or 10 per cent of the mem­bers of an as­so­ci­ation so re­quire;

3.

a com­pany mem­ber or an as­so­ci­ation mem­ber sub­ject to per­son­al li­ab­il­ity or a duty to pay in fur­ther cap­it­al so re­quires; or

4.

the found­a­tion su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity so re­quires.

³If a leg­al en­tity in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 num­ber 2 dis­penses with pre­par­ing the con­sol­id­ated ac­counts for the sub­si­di­ary group, it must dis­close the con­sol­id­ated ac­counts of the par­ent group in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions for its own an­nu­al ac­counts.

¹The con­sol­id­ated ac­counts of the fol­low­ing un­der­tak­ings must be pre­pared in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing stand­ard:

1.

com­pan­ies whose equity se­cur­it­ies are lis­ted on a stock mar­ket, if the stock mar­ket so re­quires;

2.

co­oper­at­ives with a min­im­um of 2000 mem­bers;

3.

found­a­tions that are re­quired by law to have an or­din­ary audit.

²Art­icle 962a para­graphs 1-3 and 5 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

³The con­sol­id­ated ac­counts of oth­er un­der­tak­ings are gov­erned by re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing prin­ciples. In the notes to the con­sol­id­ated ac­counts, the un­der­tak­ing shall spe­cify the valu­ation prin­ciples. If it derog­ates from such rules, it shall give no­tice there­of in the notes to the ac­counts and provide the in­form­a­tion re­quired for as­sess­ing the as­set, fin­an­cing and earn­ings of the cor­por­ate group in a dif­fer­ent form.

⁴Con­sol­id­ated ac­counts must non­ethe­less be pre­pared in ac­cord­ance with a re­cog­nised fin­an­cial re­port­ing stand­ard where:

1.

com­pany mem­bers who rep­res­ent at least 20 per cent of the ba­sic cap­it­al or 10 per cent of the mem­bers of a co­oper­at­ive or 20 per cent of the mem­bers of an as­so­ci­ation so re­quire;

2.

a com­pany mem­ber or an as­so­ci­ation mem­ber sub­ject to per­son­al li­ab­il­ity or a duty to pay in fur­ther cap­it­al so re­quires; or

3.

the found­a­tion su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity so re­quires.

A ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity is any in­stru­ment to which a right at­taches in such a man­ner that it may not be ex­er­cised or trans­ferred to an­oth­er without the in­stru­ment.

¹The ob­lig­or un­der a ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity is ob­liged to render per­form­ance only against sur­render of the in­stru­ment.

²By ren­der­ing the per­form­ance due at ma­tur­ity to the cred­it­or as in­dic­ated by the in­stru­ment, the ob­lig­or is re­leased from the ob­lig­a­tion un­less he is guilty of malice or gross neg­li­gence.

¹The trans­fer of any ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity con­fer­ring title or a lim­ited right in rem re­quires the trans­fer of pos­ses­sion of the in­stru­ment in all cases.

²In ad­di­tion, the trans­fer of in­stru­ments to or­der re­quires en­dorse­ment and that of re­gistered se­cur­it­ies re­quires a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion, which must not be made on the in­stru­ment it­self.

³By law or agree­ment, the trans­fer may re­quire the par­ti­cip­a­tion of oth­er per­sons, in par­tic­u­lar the ob­lig­or.

¹In all cases, en­dorse­ment must be done in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing bills of ex­change.

²The form­al re­quire­ments for trans­fer are sat­is­fied once the en­dorse­ment is com­pleted and the in­stru­ment handed over.

In the case of all trans­fer­able se­cur­it­ies, un­less the con­tent or nature of the in­stru­ment dic­tate oth­er­wise, on en­dorse­ment and trans­fer of the in­stru­ment the rights of the en­dors­er pass to the ac­quirer.

¹A re­gistered se­cur­ity or in­stru­ment to or­der may be con­ver­ted in­to a bear­er se­cur­ity only with the con­sent of all the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies and ob­lig­ors con­cerned. Such con­sent must be de­clared on the in­stru­ment it­self.

²The same gen­er­al prin­ciple ap­plies to con­ver­sion of bear­er se­cur­it­ies in­to re­gistered se­cur­it­ies or in­stru­ments to or­der. In this case, where the con­sent of a be­ne­fi­ciary or ob­lig­or is lack­ing, con­ver­sion is ef­fect­ive but only as between the cred­it­or who un­der­took it and his im­me­di­ate leg­al suc­cessor.

¹A ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity that has been lost may be can­celled by the court.

²Can­cel­la­tion may be re­ques­ted by the be­ne­fi­ciary of the in­stru­ment at the time it was lost or its loss was dis­covered.

¹Fol­low­ing can­cel­la­tion of the in­stru­ment, the be­ne­fi­ciary may ex­er­cise his right even without the in­stru­ment or re­quest the is­sue of a new in­stru­ment.

²In oth­er re­spects, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the in­di­vidu­al types of se­cur­it­ies ap­ply to the pro­ced­ure for and ef­fect of can­cel­la­tion.

The spe­cial pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies, such as bills of ex­change, cheques and mort­gage bonds, are re­served.

G. Col­lect­ive cus­tody, glob­al cer­ti­fic­ate and un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies

¹A bailee has the power to hold fun­gible ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies from two or more bail­ors to­geth­er in safe cus­tody un­less a bail­or ex­pressly re­quests that his se­cur­it­ies be held sep­ar­ately.

²If fun­gible ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies are en­trus­ted to a bailee for col­lect­ive cus­tody, the bail­or ac­quires on de­pos­it joint frac­tion­al title to the ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies of the same class be­long­ing to the col­lect­ive hold­ing. In or­der to de­term­ine the frac­tion­al share, the nom­in­al value or in the case of se­cur­it­ies without nom­in­al value, the num­ber of se­cur­it­ies, is de­cis­ive.

³A bail­or has the right at any time, ir­re­spect­ive of the in­volve­ment or con­sent of the oth­er bail­ors to with­draw ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies from the col­lect­ive hold­ing to the ex­tent of his share.

¹The ob­lig­or may is­sue glob­al cer­ti­fic­ates or to re­place two or more fun­gible ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies en­trus­ted to a single bailee with a glob­al cer­ti­fic­ate, provided the con­di­tions for is­sue or the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation of the com­pany provide there­for or the bail­ors have con­sen­ted thereto.

²The glob­al cer­ti­fic­ate is a ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity in the same form as the in­di­vidu­al rights that it rep­res­ents. It is jointly owned by the par­ti­cipant bail­ors, in pro­por­tion to their shares. The status and rights of the joint own­ers in re­la­tion to the glob­al cer­ti­fic­ate are gov­erned by Art­icle 973a para­graph 2 mu­tatis mutandis.

¹The ob­lig­or may is­sue rights with the same func­tion as ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies (un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies) or re­place fun­gible ne­go­ti­able se­cur­it­ies or glob­al cer­ti­fic­ates that have been en­trus­ted to a single bailee with un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies provided the con­di­tions for is­sue or the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation of the com­pany provide there­for or the bail­ors have con­sen­ted thereto.

²The ob­lig­or shall keep a book on the un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies that he has is­sued in which de­tails of the num­ber and de­nom­in­a­tion of the un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies is­sued and of the cred­it­ors are re­cor­ded. The book is not open for pub­lic in­spec­tion.

³The un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies are cre­ated on entry in the book and con­tin­ue to ex­ist only in ac­cord­ance with such entry.

⁴The trans­fer of un­cer­ti­fic­ated se­cur­it­ies re­quires a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion of as­sign­ment. Their pledging is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on the pledging of claims.

A ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity is deemed a re­gistered se­cur­ity if it is made out to a named per­son but is neither made out to or­der nor leg­ally de­clared to be an in­stru­ment to or­der.

¹The ob­lig­or is ob­liged to render per­form­ance only to a per­son who is the bear­er of the in­stru­ment and who can show that he is the per­son in whose name the in­stru­ment is re­gistered or the leg­al suc­cessor of such per­son.

²Where the ob­lig­or renders per­form­ance without such evid­ence, he is not re­leased from his ob­lig­a­tion to­wards a third party who can demon­strate his en­ti­tle­ment.

Where the ob­lig­or un­der the re­gistered se­cur­ity has re­served the right to render per­form­ance to any bear­er of the in­stru­ment, he is re­leased from his ob­lig­a­tion by ren­der­ing per­form­ance in good faith to such a bear­er even if he did not re­quest evid­ence of the cred­it­or's en­ti­tle­ment; however, he is not ob­liged to render per­form­ance to the bear­er.

¹Where no spe­cial pro­vi­sion has been made, re­gistered se­cur­it­ies are can­celled in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing bear­er se­cur­it­ies.

²The ob­lig­or may make pro­vi­sion in the in­stru­ment for a sim­pli­fied form of an­nul­ment con­sist­ing in a re­duc­tion of the num­ber of pub­lic calls for present­a­tion or a cur­tail­ment of the time lim­its, or may re­serve the right to make val­id per­form­ance even without present­a­tion or an­nul­ment of the in­stru­ment, provid­ing the cred­it­or de­clares the bor­row­er's note void and the debt re­deemed by pub­lic deed or au­then­tic­ated doc­u­ment.

¹A ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity is deemed a bear­er se­cur­ity if the word­ing or form of the in­stru­ment shows that the cur­rent bear­er is re­cog­nised as the be­ne­fi­ciary.

²However, the ob­lig­or is no longer per­mit­ted to pay if sub­ject to an at­tach­ment or­der served by a court or the po­lice.

¹Against a claim de­riv­ing from a bear­er se­cur­ity, the ob­lig­or may plead only such de­fences as con­test the valid­ity of the in­stru­ment or arise from the in­stru­ment it­self and those avail­able to him per­son­ally against the re­spect­ive ob­li­gee.

²De­fences based on the dir­ect re­la­tions between the ob­lig­or and a former bear­er are ad­miss­ible where the bear­er in­ten­tion­ally ac­ted to the det­ri­ment of the ob­lig­or when ac­quir­ing the se­cur­ity.

³The ob­lig­or may not plead the de­fence that the in­stru­ment entered cir­cu­la­tion against his will.

¹Against a claim de­riv­ing from a bear­er coupon, the ob­lig­or may not plead the de­fence that the debt prin­cip­al has been re­deemed.

²However, when re­deem­ing the debt prin­cip­al, the ob­lig­or is en­titled to re­tain an amount cor­res­pond­ing to the in­terest pay­able on coupons fall­ing due in the fu­ture which are not handed in with the debt in­stru­ments un­til the lim­it­a­tion peri­ods ap­plic­able to such coupons have ex­pired, un­less the coupons not handed in have been can­celled or the amount there­of has been se­cured.

¹Bear­er se­cur­it­ies, such as shares, bonds, di­vidend rights cer­ti­fic­ates, coupon sheets, sub­scrip­tion war­rants for coupon sheets, but not in­di­vidu­al coupons, are can­celled by the court at the re­quest of the be­ne­fi­ciary.

²…²

³The ap­plic­ant must sat­is­fy the court that he pos­sessed and lost the in­stru­ment.

⁴Where the bear­er of a se­cur­ity with a coupon sheet or sub­scrip­tion war­rant has merely lost the coupon sheet or sub­scrip­tion war­rant, present­a­tion of the se­cur­ity in ques­tion is suf­fi­cient to es­tab­lish grounds for the ap­plic­a­tion.

¹At the ap­plic­ant's re­quest, the ob­lig­or un­der the ne­go­ti­able se­cur­ity may be for­bid­den to hon­our the se­cur­ity on present­a­tion and warned of the danger of double pay­ment.

²Where a coupon sheet is to be an­nulled, the pro­vi­sion gov­ern­ing can­cel­la­tion of bear­er coupons ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis to the in­di­vidu­al coupons fall­ing due dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings.

Where the court is sat­is­fied that the ap­plic­ant was in pos­ses­sion of the se­cur­ity but has since lost it, it is­sues a pub­lic no­tice call­ing on the un­known bear­er to come for­ward and present the se­cur­ity with­in a spe­cified time lim­it, fail­ing which it will de­clare the se­cur­ity can­celled. The time lim­it must be at least six months; it com­mences on the date of the first pub­lic no­tice.

¹The call for present­a­tion of the se­cur­ity must be pub­lished three times in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce.

²In spe­cial cases, the court may ad­opt oth­er means of pub­li­cising the call for present­a­tion.

¹Where the lost bear­er se­cur­ity is presen­ted, the court sets the ap­plic­ant a time lim­it with­in which to bring an ac­tion for re­cov­ery there­of.

²Where the ap­plic­ant fails to bring ac­tion with­in such time lim­it, the court re­turns the in­stru­ment and lifts the gar­nish­ee or­der.

¹Where the lost bear­er se­cur­ity is not presen­ted with­in the time lim­it, the court may can­cel it or or­der fur­ther meas­ures, de­pend­ing on the cir­cum­stances.

²No­tice of the can­cel­la­tion of a bear­er se­cur­ity must be pub­lished im­me­di­ately in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce, and else­where at the court's dis­cre­tion.

³Fol­low­ing can­cel­la­tion, the ap­plic­ant is en­titled at his ex­pense to re­quest the is­sue of a new bear­er se­cur­ity or per­form­ance of the ob­lig­a­tion due.

¹Where in­di­vidu­al coupons have been lost, at the re­quest of the be­ne­fi­ciary the court must or­der that the amount be de­pos­ited with the court at ma­tur­ity or im­me­di­ately if the coupon is already due.

²Where three years have elapsed since the ma­tur­ity date and no be­ne­fi­ciary has come for­ward in the in­ter­im, the court must or­der the amount de­pos­ited to be re­leased to the ap­plic­ant.

Bank­notes and oth­er bear­er se­cur­it­ies is­sued in large num­bers and pay­able on sight which are in­ten­ded for cir­cu­la­tion as re­place­ment for money and made out in fixed de­nom­in­a­tions may not be can­celled.

The spe­cial pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ates made out to the bear­er are re­served.

A per­son with ca­pa­city to enter in­to con­tracts has ca­pa­city to in­cur li­ab­il­ity as a party to a bill of ex­change.

A bill of ex­change con­tains:

1.

the des­ig­na­tion 'bill of ex­change' in the text of the in­stru­ment and in the lan­guage in which it is is­sued;

2.

the un­con­di­tion­al in­struc­tion to pay a cer­tain sum of money;

3.

the name of the per­son who is to pay (drawee);

4.

the due date;

5.

the bill dom­i­cile;

6.

the name of the per­son to whom or to whose or­der pay­ment is to be made;

7.

the date and the place of is­sue;

8.

the draw­er's sig­na­ture.

¹An in­stru­ment miss­ing one of the ele­ments stip­u­lated in the pre­vi­ous art­icle is not deemed a bill of ex­change, ex­cept in the cases de­scribed in the fol­low­ing para­graphs.

²A bill of ex­change con­tain­ing no in­dic­a­tion of the due date is deemed a sight bill.

³Where no oth­er spe­cif­ic place is men­tioned, the place in­dic­ated to­geth­er with the name of the drawee is deemed both the bill dom­i­cile and the dom­i­cile of the drawee.

⁴A bill of ex­change con­tain­ing no in­dic­a­tion of the place of is­sue is deemed drawn at the place in­dic­ated to­geth­er with the name of the draw­er.

¹A bill of ex­change may be made out to the draw­er's own or­der.

²It may be drawn on the draw­er him­self.

³It may be drawn for the ac­count of a third party.

A bill of ex­change may be dom­i­ciled with a third party, at the drawee's dom­i­cile or at an­oth­er place.

¹In a bill of ex­change pay­able on sight or at a stated peri­od after present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance, the draw­er may stip­u­late that the bill amount will bear in­terest. For all oth­er bills, the in­terest rate com­ment is deemed un­writ­ten.

²The in­terest rate must be in­dic­ated on the bill of ex­change; where there is no such in­dic­a­tion, the in­terest rate com­ment is deemed un­writ­ten.

³The in­terest ac­crues as of the date on which the bill of ex­change was drawn, un­less some oth­er date is spe­cified.

¹Where the bill amount is giv­en in both let­ters and num­bers, in the event of any dis­crep­ancy the amount giv­en in let­ters is the val­id amount.

²Where the bill amount is giv­en more than once in both let­ters and num­bers, in the event of any dis­crep­ancy the low­est amount is the val­id amount.

Where a bill of ex­change bears a sig­na­ture of a per­son lack­ing ca­pa­city to enter in­to li­ab­il­it­ies on a bill of ex­change, a forged sig­na­ture, the sig­na­ture of a bogus per­son or a sig­na­ture which for whatever oth­er reas­on is not bind­ing on the per­son who signed or in whose name the bill was signed, this fact has no ef­fect on the valid­ity of the oth­er sig­na­tures.

A per­son who signs a bill of ex­change as a rep­res­ent­at­ive of an­oth­er without be­ing au­thor­ised so to do is him­self li­able on the bill and, if he hon­ours the bill, has the same rights as the party he pur­por­ted to rep­res­ent would have. The same ap­plies to a rep­res­ent­at­ive who ex­ceeds his power of rep­res­ent­a­tion.

¹The draw­er is li­able for the ac­cept­ance and pay­ment of the bill of ex­change.

²He may dis­claim li­ab­il­ity for ac­cept­ance; any com­ment whereby he dis­claims li­ab­il­ity for pay­ment is deemed un­writ­ten.

Where a bill of ex­change that was in­com­plete when it was ne­go­ti­ated is com­pleted in a man­ner con­trary to the agreed terms, such non-com­pli­ance with the agreed terms may not be in­voked against the bear­er un­less he ac­quired the bill in bad faith or was guilty of gross neg­li­gence when he ac­quired it.

¹Any bill of ex­change may be trans­ferred by en­dorse­ment even if it is not ex­pressly made out to or­der.

²Where the draw­er has in­cluded the words "not to or­der" or a com­ment to that ef­fect in the bill of ex­change, the bill may be trans­ferred only sub­ject to the form­al re­quire­ments and with the ef­fects of a nor­mal as­sign­ment.

³The en­dorse­ment may also be made out to the drawee, re­gard­less of wheth­er he has ac­cep­ted the bill or not, to the draw­er or to any oth­er party li­able on it. Such per­sons may en­dorse the bill fur­ther.

¹The en­dorse­ment must be un­con­di­tion­al. Con­di­tions at­tached to the en­dorse­ment are deemed un­writ­ten.

²A par­tial en­dorse­ment is void.

³An en­dorse­ment to the bear­er is deemed a blank en­dorse­ment.

¹The en­dorse­ment must be writ­ten on the bill of ex­change it­self or on a sheet at­tached thereto (an­nex, rider). It must be signed by the en­dors­er.

²The en­dorse­ment need not des­ig­nate the en­dorsee and may con­sist merely of the sig­na­ture of the en­dors­er (blank en­dorse­ment). In the lat­ter case the en­dorse­ment is val­id only if writ­ten on the re­verse of the bill or on the an­nex.

¹The en­dorse­ment trans­fers all rights arising from the bill of ex­change.

²If it is a blank en­dorse­ment, the bear­er may

1.

add his name or the name of an­oth­er per­son to the en­dorse­ment;

2.

en­dorse the bill fur­ther by blank en­dorse­ment or en­dorse­ment to a spe­cified per­son;

3.

ne­go­ti­ate the bill fur­ther without com­plet­ing the blank en­dorse­ment and without en­dors­ing it.

¹Un­less the bill con­tains a com­ment to the con­trary, the en­dors­er is li­able for ac­cept­ance and pay­ment.

²He may for­bid fur­ther en­dorse­ment of the bill; in this case he is not li­able to per­sons to whom the bill is fur­ther en­dorsed.

¹A per­son pos­sess­ing the bill is the hold­er in due course provid­ing he can demon­strate his en­ti­tle­ment by means of an un­in­ter­rup­ted se­quence of en­dorse­ments, even where the last is a blank en­dorse­ment. De­leted en­dorse­ments are deemed un­writ­ten. Where a blank en­dorse­ment is fol­lowed by a fur­ther en­dorse­ment, it is pre­sumed that the per­son who is­sued this en­dorse­ment ac­quired the bill by means of the blank en­dorse­ment.

²Where the bill of ex­change was some­how lost by a former hold­er, a new hold­er who can demon­strate his en­ti­tle­ment in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the pre­vi­ous para­graph is ob­liged to sur­render the bill only if he ac­quired the bill in bad faith or was guilty of gross neg­li­gence when he ac­quired it.

A per­son to whom a bill of ex­change is presen­ted for col­lec­tion may not plead against the hold­er such de­fences as are based on his dir­ect re­la­tions with the draw­er or a pre­vi­ous hold­er un­less the cur­rent hold­er in­ten­tion­ally ac­ted to the det­ri­ment of the ob­lig­or when ac­quir­ing the bill.

¹Where the en­dorse­ment con­tains the com­ment "value for col­lec­tion", "for col­lec­tion", "per pro." or some oth­er com­ment ex­press­ing no more than au­thor­isa­tion, the hold­er may ex­er­cise all the rights un­der the bill of ex­change; however, he may trans­fer it only by means of a fur­ther pro­cur­a­tion en­dorse­ment.

²In this case, the parties li­able on a bill may plead against the hold­er only such de­fences as are avail­able to them against the en­dors­er.

³The au­thor­ity con­ferred by the pro­cur­a­tion en­dorse­ment is not ex­tin­guished on the death or in­ca­pa­city of the per­son con­fer­ring it.

¹Where the en­dorse­ment con­tains the com­ment "value for se­cur­ity", "value for pledge" or some oth­er com­ment ex­press­ing a pledge, the hold­er may ex­er­cise all the rights un­der the bill of ex­change; however, any en­dorse­ment is­sued by him only has the ef­fect of a pro­cur­a­tion en­dorse­ment.

²The parties li­able on a bill may not plead against the hold­er such de­fences as are based on his dir­ect re­la­tions with the en­dors­er un­less the hold­er in­ten­tion­ally ac­ted to the det­ri­ment of the ob­lig­or when ac­quir­ing the bill.

¹An en­dorse­ment after ma­tur­ity has the same ef­fects as an en­dorse­ment pri­or to ma­tur­ity. However, where the bill of ex­change was en­dorsed only after protest for non-pay­ment or after ex­piry of the time lim­it for protest, the en­dorse­ment only has the ef­fects of a nor­mal as­sign­ment.

²Un­til the op­pos­ite is proven, it is pre­sumed that an un­dated en­dorse­ment was made on the bill of ex­change be­fore the time lim­it for protest ex­pired.

The hold­er or any per­son merely in pos­ses­sion of the bill of ex­change may present it to the drawee at his dom­i­cile for ac­cept­ance at any time pri­or to ma­tur­ity.

¹The draw­er may stip­u­late on any bill of ex­change that it must be presen­ted for ac­cept­ance, with or without a time lim­it for such present­a­tion.

²He may pro­hib­it present­a­tion of the bill of ex­change for ac­cept­ance where it is not dom­i­ciled with a third party or at a place oth­er than the dom­i­cile of the drawee and is not an after-sight bill.

³He may also stip­u­late that the bill of ex­change must not be presen­ted for ac­cept­ance pri­or to a spe­cified date.

⁴Un­less the draw­er has pro­hib­ited present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance, any en­dors­er may stip­u­late that the bill of ex­change must be presen­ted for ac­cept­ance, with or without a time lim­it.

¹An after-sight bill must be presen­ted for ac­cept­ance with­in one year of the date on which it was drawn.

²The draw­er may stip­u­late a short­er or longer time lim­it.

³The en­dors­er may stip­u­late a short­er time lim­it for present­a­tion.

¹The drawee may re­quest that the bill of ex­change be presen­ted to him again on the day after the first present­a­tion. The parties may in­voke any fail­ure to com­ply with this re­quire­ment only if the re­quest is men­tioned in the protest.

²The hold­er is not ob­liged to leave a bill of ex­change presen­ted for ac­cept­ance in the drawee's pos­ses­sion.

¹The de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance is made on the bill of ex­change. It is ex­pressed through the word "ac­cep­ted" or words to the same ef­fect; it must be un­der­lined by the drawee. The drawee is deemed to have de­clared his ac­cept­ance by merely ap­pend­ing his sig­na­ture to the ob­verse of the bill of ex­change.

²Where the bill of ex­change is an after-sight bill or must be presen­ted for ac­cept­ance with­in a spe­cified time lim­it ow­ing to a spe­cial com­ment to that ef­fect, the de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance must in­dic­ate the date on which it is made, un­less the hold­er re­quires that the date of present­a­tion be in­dic­ated. Where no date is in­dic­ated, the hold­er must draw at­ten­tion to this omis­sion by timely protest in or­der to safe­guard his right of re­course against the en­dors­er and the draw­er.

¹The ac­cept­ance must be un­con­di­tion­al; however, the drawee may lim­it it to a por­tion of the bill amount.

²Where the de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance con­tains any terms that de­vi­ate from the pro­vi­sions of the bill of ex­change, ac­cept­ance is deemed to have been re­fused. However, the ac­cept­or is li­able ac­cord­ing to the terms of his de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance.

¹Where the draw­er has in­dic­ated on the bill of ex­change a bill dom­i­cile oth­er than the dom­i­cile of the drawee but without des­ig­nat­ing a third party by whom pay­ment is to be made, the drawee may des­ig­nate a third party when he de­clares ac­cept­ance. In the ab­sence of such des­ig­na­tion it is pre­sumed that the ac­cept­or him­self has un­der­taken to pay the bill at its dom­i­cile.

²Where the bill of ex­change is dom­i­ciled with the drawee him­self, he may des­ig­nate in his de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance an agent at the bill dom­i­cile by whom the pay­ment will be made.

¹Due to his ac­cept­ance, the drawee is ob­liged to pay the bill of ex­change at ma­tur­ity.

²In the event of non-pay­ment, the hold­er, even if he is the draw­er, has a claim against the ac­cept­or un­der the bill of ex­change to any sums to which he is en­titled pur­su­ant to Art­icles 1045 and 1046.

¹Where the drawee has struck out the de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance made on the bill of ex­change pri­or to re­turn­ing the bill, ac­cept­ance is deemed to have been re­fused. Un­til the op­pos­ite is proven, it is pre­sumed that such de­le­tion was made pri­or to the re­turn of the bill.

²However, where the drawee has in­formed the hold­er or a per­son whose sig­na­ture has been ap­pen­ded to the bill in writ­ing of his ac­cept­ance, he is li­able to such per­sons in ac­cord­ance with the terms of his de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance.

¹Pay­ment of the bill amount may be se­cured in part or in full by means of a bill guar­an­tee.

²Se­cur­ity may be provided by a third party or even by a per­son whose sig­na­ture has already been ap­pen­ded to the bill of ex­change.

¹The guar­an­tee com­mit­ment is in­scribed on the bill of ex­change or an an­nex (rider) thereto.

²It is ex­pressed by the words "as guar­ant­or" or a com­ment to that ef­fect; it must be signed by the bill guar­ant­or.

³The mere act of sign­ing the ob­verse of the bill of ex­change is deemed a guar­an­tee com­mit­ment, provid­ing the sig­na­ture is not that of the drawee or the draw­er.

⁴The guar­an­tee com­mit­ment must in­dic­ate for whom the guar­an­tee is giv­en; where there is no such in­dic­a­tion, it is deemed to be giv­en for the draw­er.

¹The bill guar­ant­or is li­able in the same man­ner as the per­son for whom he has giv­en the guar­an­tee.

²His com­mit­ment is val­id even if the guar­an­teed ob­lig­a­tion is void for any reas­on oth­er than form­al de­fect.

³A bill guar­ant­or who pays the bill of ex­change ac­quires all rights there­un­der against the per­son for whom he has giv­en the guar­an­tee and against all those who are li­able to such per­son un­der the bill.

1 A bill of ex­change may be drawn:

on sight;

for a spe­cified time after sight;

for a spe­cified time after draw­ing;

on a spe­cified date.

²Bills of ex­change with oth­er ma­tur­ity dates or with sev­er­al con­sec­ut­ive ma­tur­ity dates are void.

¹A sight bill is due on present­a­tion. It must be presen­ted for pay­ment with­in one year of be­ing drawn. The draw­er may stip­u­late a short­er or longer time lim­it. The en­dors­er may stip­u­late a short­er time lim­it for present­a­tion.

²The draw­er may stip­u­late that the sight bill may not be presen­ted for pay­ment be­fore a spe­cified date. In this case the time lim­it for present­a­tion com­mences on that date.

¹The ma­tur­ity date of an after-sight bill is de­term­ined by the date in­dic­ated in the de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance or the protest date.

²Where no date is in­dic­ated in the de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance and no protest is made, the bill is deemed to have been ac­cep­ted on the last date of the time lim­it en­vis­aged for present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance as against the ac­cept­or.

¹A bill of ex­change made out for one or more months after it was drawn or after sight falls due on the cor­res­pond­ing day of the pay­ment month. If there is no such day, the bill falls due on the last day of the month.

²Where the bill of ex­change is made out for one or more months plus half a month after it was drawn or after sight, the full months are coun­ted first.

³Where the ma­tur­ity date is ex­pressed as the be­gin­ning, middle or end of a month, such ex­pres­sion is deemed to mean the first, fif­teenth or last day of the month.

⁴The ex­pres­sions 'eight days' or 'fif­teen days' mean not one or two weeks but a full eight or fif­teen days.

⁵The ex­pres­sion 'half-month' means fif­teen days.

¹Where a bill of ex­change is pay­able on a cer­tain date at a place where the cal­en­dar is dif­fer­ent from that of the place of is­sue, the ma­tur­ity date is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the cal­en­dar of the bill dom­i­cile.

²Where a bill drawn between two places with dif­fer­ent cal­en­dars be­comes pay­able when a spe­cified time has elapsed since it was drawn, the date on which it was drawn is con­ver­ted to the equi­val­ent date in the cal­en­dar of the dom­i­cile and the ma­tur­ity date com­puted ac­cord­ing to the lat­ter.

³The pro­vi­sion set out in the pre­vi­ous para­graph ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis to the com­pu­ta­tion of time lim­its for present­a­tion of bills of ex­change.

⁴The pro­vi­sions of this Art­icle do not ap­ply where a com­ment on the bill of ex­change or any oth­er term re­veals that the parties in­ten­ded oth­er­wise.

¹The hold­er of a bill of ex­change pay­able on a spe­cif­ic date or a spe­cified time after it was drawn or after sight must present the bill for pay­ment on the pay­ment date or one of the two sub­sequent work­ing days.

²De­liv­ery of the bill to a clear­ing house re­cog­nised by the Swiss Na­tion­al Bank is equi­val­ent to present­a­tion for pay­ment.¹

¹The drawee may re­quire the hold­er to sur­render the re­ceipted bill of ex­change against pay­ment.

²The hold­er may not re­fuse part pay­ment.

³Where a part pay­ment is made, the drawee may in­sist that it be noted on the bill of ex­change and that a re­ceipt be is­sued for it.

¹The hold­er of the bill of ex­change is not ob­liged to ac­cept pay­ment be­fore ma­tur­ity.

²The drawee pays be­fore ma­tur­ity at his own risk.

³A per­son pay­ing at ma­tur­ity is re­leased from his ob­lig­a­tions provided he is not guilty of malice or gross neg­li­gence. He is ob­liged to check that the se­quence of en­dorse­ments is cor­rect but is not re­quired to veri­fy the sig­na­tures of the en­dors­ers.

¹Where the bill of ex­change is de­nom­in­ated in a cur­rency oth­er than that of the bill dom­i­cile, the bill amount may be paid in the na­tion­al cur­rency at its value as at the ma­tur­ity date. Where the ob­lig­or delays in mak­ing the pay­ment, the hold­er is free to choose wheth­er the bill amount is con­ver­ted in­to the na­tion­al cur­rency at the rate that ap­plies on the ma­tur­ity date or the rate that ap­plies on the pay­ment date.

²The value of the for­eign cur­rency is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to cus­tom­ary com­mer­cial prac­tice at the bill dom­i­cile. However, the draw­er may stip­u­late an ex­change rate for the bill amount on the bill of ex­change.

³The pro­vi­sions of the two pre­vi­ous para­graphs do not ap­ply if the draw­er has stip­u­lated pay­ment in a spe­cified cur­rency (ac­tu­al cur­rency clause).

⁴Where the bill of ex­change is de­nom­in­ated in a cur­rency which has the same name but a dif­fer­ent value in the coun­try in which the bill was drawn and that in which it is pay­able, the pre­sump­tion is that the cur­rency meant is that of the bill dom­i­cile.

Where the bill of ex­change is not presen­ted for pay­ment with­in the time lim­it laid down in Art­icle 1028, the ob­lig­or may de­pos­it the bill amount with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the risk and ex­pense of the hold­er.

¹In the event of non-pay­ment of a bill at ma­tur­ity, the hold­er has right of re­course against the en­dors­er, the draw­er and the oth­er parties li­able on the bill.

²The hold­er has the same right even be­fore ma­tur­ity:

1.

where ac­cept­ance has been re­fused in part or in full;

2.

where the as­sets of the drawee are sub­ject to in­solv­ency pro­ceed­ings, re­gard­less of wheth­er he has ac­cep­ted the bill or not, or where only pay­ments by the drawee have been sus­pen­ded, or where com­puls­ory ex­e­cu­tion has been levied on his as­sets without suc­cess;

3.

where the as­sets of the draw­er of a bill of ex­change whose present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance is pro­hib­ited are sub­ject to in­solv­ency pro­ceed­ings.

¹Any re­fus­al of ac­cept­ance or of pay­ment must be de­clared by pub­lic deed (protest for non-ac­cept­ance or for non-pay­ment).

²Protest for non-ac­cept­ance must be made with­in the time lim­it ap­plic­able for present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance. Where, in the case of Art­icle 1014 para­graph 1, the bill of ex­change was presen­ted for the first time on the last day of the time lim­it, protest may still be made on the fol­low­ing day.

³In the case of bills of ex­change pay­able on a spe­cif­ic day or for a cer­tain time after they were drawn or after sight, protest for non-pay­ment must be made on one of the two work­ing days fol­low­ing the pay­ment date. Protest for non-pay­ment of sight bills must be made with­in the same time lim­its for protest for non-ac­cept­ance as en­vis­aged in the pre­vi­ous para­graph.

⁴Where protest for non-ac­cept­ance has been made, neither present­a­tion for pay­ment nor protest for non-pay­ment is re­quired.

⁵Where the drawee has sus­pen­ded his pay­ments, re­gard­less of wheth­er he has ac­cep­ted the bill of ex­change or not, or com­puls­ory ex­e­cu­tion has been levied on his as­sets without suc­cess, the hold­er may have re­course only once the bill has been presen­ted to the drawee for pay­ment and protest has been made.

⁶Where the as­sets of the drawee, re­gard­less of wheth­er he has ac­cep­ted the bill of ex­change or not, or the as­sets of the draw­er of a bill of ex­change whose present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance is pro­hib­ited are sub­ject to in­solv­ency pro­ceed­ings, present­a­tion of the court or­der com­men­cing such pro­ceed­ings is suf­fi­cient to ex­er­cise the right of re­course.

Such protest must be made by a spe­cially au­thor­ised not­ary or of­fi­cial body.

¹The protest con­tains:

1.

the name of the per­son or of the busi­ness for whom and against whom the protest is made;

2.

a state­ment that a re­quest was made without suc­cess to the per­son or com­pany against whom the protest is made to per­form his or its ob­lig­a­tion un­der the bill of ex­change or that such per­son or com­pany could not be reached or that their busi­ness premises or ad­dress could not be traced;

3.

an in­dic­a­tion of the place at which and date on which the re­quest was made or at­temp­ted without suc­cess;

4.

the sig­na­ture of the per­son or of­fi­cial body mak­ing the protest.

²Where a part pay­ment is made, this must be noted in the protest.

³If the drawee to whom the bill of ex­change has been presen­ted for ac­cept­ance in­sists that it be presen­ted again on the fol­low­ing day, this must also be noted in the protest.

¹The protest is made on a sep­ar­ate sheet at­tached to the bill of ex­change.

²Where the protest in­volves the present­a­tion of sev­er­al du­plic­ates of the same bill of ex­change or present­a­tion of the ori­gin­al in­stru­ment and a copy of it, it is suf­fi­cient if the protest is at­tached to one of the du­plic­ates or to the ori­gin­al bill.

³A note to the ef­fect that the protest is at­tached to one of the du­plic­ates or to the ori­gin­al in­stru­ment must be made on the re­main­ing du­plic­ates or the copy.

Where the bill of ex­change is ac­cep­ted for only part of the bill amount and protest is made for that reas­on, a copy must be made of the bill of ex­change and the protest made on such copy.

Where per­form­ance of a bill ob­lig­a­tion is re­quired of sev­er­al li­able parties, only one in­stru­ment is re­quired for the protests in­volved.

¹The not­ary or of­fi­cial body mak­ing the protest must make a copy of the protest doc­u­ment.

²The fol­low­ing must be in­dic­ated on this copy:

1.

the amount of the bill of ex­change;

2.

the ma­tur­ity date;

3.

the place at which and date on which it was drawn;

4.

the draw­er of the bill of ex­change, the drawee and the name of the per­son or com­pany to whose the or­der the pay­ment is to be made;

5.

the name of the per­son or com­pany through which the pay­ment is to be made, where this is dif­fer­ent from the drawee;

6.

the emer­gency con­tact de­tails and ac­cept­ors for hon­our.

³Cop­ies of protest doc­u­ments must be archived in chro­no­lo­gic­al or­der by the not­ary or of­fi­cial body mak­ing the protest.

A protest signed by the com­pet­ent not­ary or of­fi­cial body is val­id even if not made in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions or if the in­form­a­tion it con­tains is in­ac­cur­ate.

¹The hold­er must no­ti­fy the im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er and the draw­er of the lack of ac­cept­ance or pay­ment with­in four work­ing days of the date on which the protest was made or, in the case of the com­ment "No protest", with­in four work­ing days of the date of present­a­tion. With­in two work­ing days of re­ceipt of such no­ti­fic­a­tion, every en­dors­er must pass on the news re­ceived to the im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er and give him the names and ad­dresses of the per­sons from whom he re­ceived it, and so on in se­quence un­til the draw­er. All time lim­its run as of re­ceipt of the pre­vi­ous no­ti­fic­a­tion.

²Where no­ti­fic­a­tion is made pur­su­ant to the pre­vi­ous para­graph to a per­son whose sig­na­ture is ap­pen­ded to the bill of ex­change, the same no­ti­fic­a­tion must be made with­in the same time lim­it to his bill guar­ant­or.

³Where an en­dors­er has omit­ted to give his ad­dress or has writ­ten it il­legibly, it is suf­fi­cient if his im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er is no­ti­fied.

⁴The no­ti­fic­a­tion may be made in any form, in­clud­ing the mere re­turn of the bill of ex­change.

⁵Per­sons un­der a duty to no­ti­fy must show that they com­plied with it with­in the pre­scribed time lim­it. The time lim­it is deemed ob­served where a let­ter con­tain­ing such no­ti­fic­a­tion was pos­ted with­in the time lim­it.

⁶A per­son who fails to no­ti­fy in good time does not for­feit his right of re­course; he is li­able for any losses arising from his fail­ure to no­ti­fy, but only up to the bill amount.

¹By ap­pend­ing and sign­ing the com­ment "No protest" or words to the same ef­fect on the bill of ex­change, the draw­er and any en­dors­er or bill guar­ant­or may re­lease the hold­er from his ob­lig­a­tion to ar­range protest for non-ac­cept­ance or non-pay­ment in or­der to ex­er­cise his right of re­course.

²The com­ment does not re­lease the hold­er from the ob­lig­a­tion to present the bill of ex­change in good time and to make the re­quis­ite no­ti­fic­a­tion. The bur­den of prov­ing that the time lim­it was not ob­served lies with any party re­ly­ing on such point against the hold­er.

³Where the com­ment was ap­pen­ded by the draw­er, it is ef­fect­ive as against all parties li­able on the bill; where it was ap­pen­ded by an en­dors­er or a bill guar­ant­or, it is ef­fect­ive only as against them. If the hold­er ar­ranges for protest to be made in spite of the com­ment ap­pen­ded by the draw­er, he must bear the costs. Where the com­ment was ap­pen­ded by an en­dors­er or a bill guar­ant­or, all parties li­able on the bill must bear the costs of any protest made in spite of it.

¹All parties who have drawn, ac­cep­ted, en­dorsed or guar­an­teed a bill of ex­change are li­able as co-ob­lig­ors to­wards the hold­er.

²The hold­er may re­sort to any of them in­di­vidu­ally, sev­er­ally or all to­geth­er without be­ing bound by the or­der in which they as­sumed their ob­lig­a­tions.

³The same right ac­crues to every party who has hon­oured the bill of ex­change.

⁴In as­sert­ing his claim against one party li­able on a bill, the hold­er does not sur­render his rights against the oth­ers or against the en­dors­ers sub­sequent to such party.

¹By way of re­course the hold­er may claim:

1.

the bill amount, provided the bill has not been ac­cep­ted or hon­oured, with any agreed in­terest;

2.

in­terest at a rate of six per cent since the ma­tur­ity date;

3.

the costs of the protest and no­ti­fic­a­tions and any oth­er ex­penses;

4.

a com­mis­sion of no more than one-third of one per cent.

²Where re­course is had be­fore ma­tur­ity, in­terest is de­duc­ted from the bill amount. Such in­terest is cal­cu­lated on the basis of the of­fi­cial (Swiss Na­tion­al Bank) dis­count rate ob­tain­ing at the dom­i­cile of the hold­er on the date on which re­course is had.

A party that has hon­oured the bill of ex­change may claim from his pre­ced­ing en­dors­ers:

1.

the full amount he paid;

2.

the in­terest on such amount at a rate of six per cent since the date on which the bill was hon­oured;

3.

his ex­penses;

4.

a com­mis­sion of no more than 2 thou­sandths.

¹Any party li­able on a bill against whom a re­course claim is or may be made is en­titled to in­sist that the bill of ex­change to­geth­er with the protest and a re­ceipted in­voice be handed over to him against pay­ment of the re­course amount.

²Any en­dors­er who has hon­oured the bill may de­lete his en­dorse­ment and those of the sub­sequent en­dors­ers.

Where re­course is had fol­low­ing a par­tial ac­cept­ance, the party pay­ing the un­ac­cep­ted por­tion of the bill amount may in­sist that this be noted on the bill of ex­change and a re­ceipt for such por­tion be is­sued to him. Fur­ther, the hold­er must provide him with an au­then­tic­ated copy of the bill of ex­change and the protest to make fur­ther re­course pos­sible.

¹A party with right of re­course may, where no com­ment to the con­trary ex­ists, ex­er­cise such right by draw­ing a new bill of ex­change (re-ex­change bill) on one of his pre­ced­ing en­dors­ers which is pay­able on sight and dom­i­ciled at the place of res­id­ence of the pre­ced­ing en­dors­er.

²In ad­di­tion to the amounts spe­cified in Art­icles 1045 and 1046, the re-ex­change bill in­cludes the broker­age fee and the stamp duty for the re-ex­change bill.

³Where the re-ex­change bill is drawn by the hold­er, the bill amount is de­pend­ent on the rate ap­plic­able to a sight bill drawn from the bill dom­i­cile of the ori­gin­al bill of ex­change at the dom­i­cile of the pre­ced­ing en­dors­er. Where the re-ex­change bill is drawn by an en­dors­er, the bill amount is de­pend­ent on the rate ap­plic­able to a sight bill drawn from the dom­i­cile of the draw­er of the re-ex­change bill at the dom­i­cile of the pre­ced­ing en­dors­er.

¹In the event that the hold­er fails to com­ply with the time lim­its

for present­a­tion of a sight bill or an after-sight bill,

for protest for non-ac­cept­ance or for non-pay­ment,

for present­a­tion for pay­ment of bills bear­ing the com­ment "No protest",

he for­feits his rights against the en­dors­er, the draw­er and all oth­er parties li­able on the bill, with the ex­cep­tion of the ac­cept­or.

²In the event that the hold­er fails to com­ply with the time lim­it for present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance pre­scribed by the draw­er, he for­feits his right of re­course for non-ac­cept­ance and for non-pay­ment, un­less the word­ing of the com­ment shows that the draw­er in­ten­ded to ex­clude only li­ab­il­ity for ac­cept­ance.

³Where the time lim­it for present­a­tion is in­dic­ated in an en­dorse­ment, only the en­dors­er may rely on it.

¹Where in­su­per­able obstacles (stat­utory pro­vi­sions en­acted by a state or some oth­er in­stance of force ma­jeure) mil­it­ate against the timely present­a­tion of the bill of ex­change or timely protest, the time lim­its for such ac­tions are ex­ten­ded.

²The hold­er is ob­liged to no­ti­fy the im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er of the force ma­jeure event without delay and to note such no­ti­fic­a­tion to­geth­er with the date and place and his sig­na­ture on the bill of ex­change or an an­nex thereto; in oth­er re­spects, the pro­vi­sions set out in Art­icle 1042 are ap­plic­able.

³Once the force ma­jeure ceases to ap­ply, the hold­er must present the bill for ac­cept­ance or for pay­ment without delay and, where ne­ces­sary, make protest.

⁴In the event that the force ma­jeure lasts for longer than 30 days after ma­tur­ity, re­course may be had without need for present­a­tion or protest.

⁵In the case of sight bills or after-sight bills, the thirty-day time lim­it com­mences on the date on which the hold­er no­ti­fied the im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er of the force ma­jeure event; such no­ti­fic­a­tion may be made even be­fore ex­piry of the time lim­it for present­a­tion. In the case of after-sight bills, the thirty-day time lim­it is ex­ten­ded by the fixed peri­od after sight in­dic­ated on the bill of ex­change.

⁶Facts per­tain­ing purely to the per­son of the hold­er or a per­son charged with the task of present­ing the bill of ex­change or mak­ing protest do not count as force ma­jeure events.

¹To the ex­tent that the draw­er of a bill of ex­change and the ac­cept­or are un­justly en­riched to the det­ri­ment of the hold­er, they re­main ob­liged to the hold­er even where their bill li­ab­il­ity has be­come time-barred or ex­tin­guished on ac­count of fail­ure to take the ac­tions re­quired by law to sus­tain the en­ti­tle­ment un­der the bill of ex­change.

²The claim for un­just en­rich­ment also ex­ists against the drawee, the dom­i­cili­ate and the per­son or com­pany for whose ac­count the draw­er is­sued the bill.

³By con­trast, no such claim ex­ists against the en­dors­ers whose bill li­ab­il­ity is ex­tin­guished.

¹Where the draw­er of a bill of ex­change has been de­clared in­solv­ent, any claim he holds un­der civil law against the drawee for resti­tu­tion of cov­er or re­im­burse­ment of amounts paid de­volves on the hold­er of the bill.

²Where the draw­er de­clares on the bill of ex­change that he as­signs his claims in re­spect of the cov­er provided, these de­volve on the cur­rent hold­er of the bill.

³Once the de­clar­a­tion of in­solv­ency has been pub­lished or the as­sign­ment has been no­ti­fied to him, the drawee may make pay­ment only to the duly es­tab­lished hold­er against sur­render of the bill of ex­change.

¹The draw­er and any en­dors­er or bill guar­ant­or may in­dic­ate a per­son to act as ac­cept­or or pay­er in case of need.

²Sub­ject to the con­di­tions set out be­low, the bill of ex­change may be ac­cep­ted or paid for hon­our by any party li­able on it against whom re­course may be had.

³Any third party, even the drawee, and any party already li­able on the bill, with the ex­cep­tion of the ac­cept­or, may ac­cept or pay a bill of ex­change for hon­our.

⁴A per­son ac­cept­ing or pay­ing a bill for hon­our is ob­liged to no­ti­fy the li­able party for whom he is in­ter­ven­ing of his ac­tion with­in two work­ing days. Should he fail to do so, he is li­able for any losses caused by the omis­sion, al­beit only up to the bill amount.

¹Ac­cept­ance for hon­our is per­mit­ted in all cases in which the hold­er has a right of re­course be­fore ma­tur­ity, ex­cept where present­a­tion of the bill for ac­cept­ance is pro­hib­ited.

²Where the bill of ex­change in­dic­ates a per­son to act as ac­cept­or or pay­er at the bill dom­i­cile in case of need, the hold­er has a right of re­course be­fore ma­tur­ity against the per­son who ap­pen­ded such emer­gency ad­dress and against sub­sequent en­dors­ers only if he has presen­ted the bill to the per­son in­dic­ated un­der such ad­dress and, in the event that ac­cept­ance for hon­our is re­fused, has had such re­fus­al noted by means of protest.

³In all oth­er cases the hold­er may re­fuse ac­cept­ance for hon­our. However, if he ad­mits it, he for­feits his right of re­course be­fore ma­tur­ity against the per­son in whose hon­our ac­cept­ance was de­clared and against sub­sequent en­dors­ers.

The ac­cept­ance for hon­our is noted on the bill of ex­change; it must be signed by the ac­cept­or for hon­our. The de­clar­a­tion of ac­cept­ance must in­dic­ate the per­son for whom the ac­cept­ance for hon­our is made; ab­sent such in­dic­a­tion, it is deemed made for the draw­er.

¹A per­son ac­cept­ing a bill for hon­our is li­able to the hold­er and the sub­sequent en­dors­ers of the per­son for whom he in­ter­vened in the same man­ner as said per­son.

²In spite of the ac­cept­ance for hon­our the party in whose hon­our the bill of ex­change was ac­cep­ted and his pre­ced­ing en­dors­ers may in­sist that the hold­er sur­render the bill of ex­change and the protest made, if any, to­geth­er with a re­ceipted in­voice against re­im­burse­ment of the amount spe­cified in Art­icle 1045.

¹Pay­ment for hon­our is per­mit­ted in all cases in which the hold­er has a right of re­course at or be­fore ma­tur­ity.

²The pay­ment for hon­our must com­prise the full amount pay­able by the party li­able on the bill for whom it is made.

³It must take place no later than the day after the day on which the time lim­it for protest for non-pay­ment ex­pires.

¹Where the bill of ex­change is ac­cep­ted for hon­our by per­sons res­id­ent at the bill dom­i­cile or the per­sons in­dic­ated on the bill as be­ing will­ing to pay in case of need are res­id­ent at the bill dom­i­cile, the hold­er must present the bill to all such per­sons no later than the day after the day on which the time lim­it for protest for non-pay­ment ex­pires and, where ap­plic­able, must ar­range protest for fail­ure to make pay­ment for hon­our.

²Any fail­ure to make timely protest re­leases the per­son who ap­pen­ded the emer­gency ad­dress or in whose hon­our the bill was ac­cep­ted and the sub­sequent en­dors­ers.

Where the hold­er re­fuses pay­ment for hon­our, he for­feits his right of re­course against those who would have been re­leased.

¹A note that the pay­ment for hon­our has been re­ceived must be made on the bill of ex­change, in­dic­at­ing the party for whom the pay­ment was made. In the ab­sence of such an in­dic­a­tion, the pay­ment is deemed made for the draw­er.

²The bill of ex­change and any protest made are handed over to the pay­er for hon­our.

¹The pay­er for hon­our ac­quires the rights un­der the bill against the party for whom he paid and against those li­able to said party un­der the bill. However, he is not en­titled to en­dorse it fur­ther.

²The sub­sequent en­dors­ers of the party in whose hon­our pay­ment was made are re­leased.

³Where sev­er­al pay­ments for hon­our are offered, pref­er­ence is giv­en to those res­ult­ing in re­lease of the largest num­ber of parties li­able on the bill. A per­son pay­ing in hon­our in con­tra­ven­tion of this pro­vi­sion and in full know­ledge of the situ­ation for­feits his right of re­course against those who would oth­er­wise have been re­leased.

¹The bill of ex­change may be is­sued in mul­tiple identic­al du­plic­ates.

²Such du­plic­ates must be giv­en seri­al num­bers with­in the text on the in­stru­ment; oth­er­wise, each du­plic­ate counts as a sep­ar­ate bill of ex­change.

³Every hold­er of a bill of ex­change may re­quest that mul­tiple du­plic­ates be sup­plied to him at his own ex­pense, provided the text of the bill of ex­change does not stip­u­late that it was made out as a single copy. To do so, the hold­er must con­tact the pre­ced­ing en­dors­er im­me­di­ately be­fore him, who in turn must con­tact his im­me­di­ately pre­ced­ing en­dors­er, and so on in se­quence back to the draw­er. The en­dors­ers are ob­liged to re­peat their en­dorse­ments on the newly is­sued du­plic­ates.

¹Where pay­ment is made on one du­plic­ate of the bill, the rights un­der all oth­ers are ex­tin­guished even if they do not bear a com­ment to the ef­fect that pay­ment on one renders all the oth­ers in­val­id. However, the drawee re­mains li­able for any du­plic­ate ac­cep­ted that has not been re­turned to him.

²Where an en­dors­er has trans­ferred the du­plic­ates to a num­ber of dif­fer­ent per­sons, he and his sub­sequent en­dors­ers are li­able for du­plic­ates bear­ing their sig­na­ture which have not been sur­rendered.

¹Where one du­plic­ate has been sent for ac­cept­ance, a note must be made on the oth­ers of the name of the per­son now in pos­ses­sion of the des­patched du­plic­ate. The lat­ter is ob­liged to sur­render it to the right­ful hold­er of any oth­er du­plic­ate.

²Where he re­fuses to sur­render it, the hold­er has a right of re­course only after ar­ran­ging for protest to be made, thereby con­firm­ing:

1.

that the du­plic­ate sent for ac­cept­ance was not sur­rendered to him on re­quest;

2.

that neither ac­cept­ance nor pay­ment was ob­tained on a dif­fer­ent du­plic­ate.

¹Every hold­er of a bill of ex­change is en­titled to make cop­ies of it.

²The copy must be an ex­act re­pro­duc­tion of the ori­gin­al in­stru­ment with en­dorse­ments and all oth­er notes and com­ments ap­pen­ded thereto. It must bear an in­dic­a­tion of how far the copy ex­tends.

³The copy may be en­dorsed and have a de­clar­a­tion of guar­an­tee ad­ded to it in the same man­ner and with the same ef­fects as the ori­gin­al bill.

¹The cus­todi­an of the ori­gin­al bill must be in­dic­ated on the copy. The cus­todi­an is ob­liged to sur­render the ori­gin­al bill to the right­ful hold­er of the copy.

²Where he re­fuses to sur­render it, the hold­er has right of re­course against the en­dors­ers of the copy and against per­sons who have ap­pen­ded a de­clar­a­tion of guar­an­tee to it only after ar­ran­ging for protest to be made, thereby con­firm­ing that the ori­gin­al bill was not sur­rendered to him on re­quest.

³Where the ori­gin­al bill bears the com­ment "hence­for­ward en­dorse­ments val­id only if made on copy" or a com­ment to that ef­fect ap­pen­ded to the last en­dorse­ment be­fore the copy was made, any sub­sequent en­dorse­ment ad­ded to the ori­gin­al bill is void.

Where the text of a bill of ex­change is amended, those per­sons who ap­pend their sig­na­ture to the bill after such amend­ment are li­able in ac­cord­ance with the amended text. Those who signed earli­er are li­able in ac­cord­ance with the ori­gin­al text.

¹The claims against the ac­cept­or un­der the bill of ex­change be­come time-barred three years after the ma­tur­ity date.

²The claims of the hold­er against the en­dors­er and against the draw­er be­come time-barred one year after the date on which timely protest was made or, where the bill bears the com­ment "No protest", one year after the ma­tur­ity date.

³The claims of one en­dors­er against oth­er en­dors­ers and against the draw­er be­come time-barred six months after the date on which the bill of ex­change was hon­oured by the en­dors­er or the claim based on the bill was as­ser­ted against him.

The lim­it­a­tion peri­od is in­ter­rup­ted by com­mence­ment of ac­tion on the bill, sub­mis­sion of an ap­plic­a­tion for debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, ser­vice of a third party no­tice or pe­ti­tion in in­solv­ency.

¹The in­ter­rup­tion of the lim­it­a­tion peri­od is ef­fect­ive only against the party in re­gard to whom the fact caus­ing the in­ter­rup­tion oc­curred.

²On in­ter­rup­tion of the lim­it­a­tion peri­od, a new lim­it­a­tion peri­od of the same dur­a­tion com­mences.

¹A per­son who has lost a bill of ex­change may re­quest the court to pro­hib­it the drawee from pay­ing the bill.¹

2 In serving the at­tach­ment or­der, the court au­thor­ises the drawee to de­pos­it the bill amount on the ma­tur­ity date and des­ig­nates the place where it is to be de­pos­ited.

¹Where the hold­er of the bill of ex­change is known, the court sets the ap­plic­ant an ap­pro­pri­ate time lim­it with­in which to bring ac­tion for sur­render there­of.

²Where the ap­plic­ant fails to bring such ac­tion with­in the time lim­it, the court lifts the at­tach­ment or­der im­posed on the drawee.

¹Where the hold­er of the bill of ex­change is known, the court may be asked to can­cel it.

²The party ap­ply­ing for can­cel­la­tion must sat­is­fy the court that he pos­sessed and lost the bill of ex­change and pro­duce either a copy of the bill or in­form­a­tion on its es­sen­tial terms.

Where the court is sat­is­fied that the ap­plic­ant was in pos­ses­sion of the bill of ex­change but has since lost it, it is­sues a pub­lic no­tice call­ing on the un­known hold­er to come for­ward and present the bill with­in a spe­cified time lim­it, fail­ing which it will de­clare the bill can­celled.

¹The time lim­it for present­a­tion must be at least three months and no more than one year.

²However, the court is not bound by the min­im­um dur­a­tion of three months if, in the case of over­due bills, the stat­utory lim­it­a­tion peri­od would ex­pire be­fore three months have elapsed.

³The time lim­it for over­due bills com­mences on the date of the first pub­lic no­tice, and the time lim­it for bills that are not over­due com­mences on the ma­tur­ity date.

¹The call for present­a­tion of the bill of ex­change must be pub­lished three times in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce.

²In spe­cial cases the court may ad­opt oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate means for pub­li­cising the call for present­a­tion.

¹Where the lost bill of ex­change is presen­ted, the court sets the ap­plic­ant a time lim­it with­in which to bring ac­tion for sur­render of the bill.

²Where the ap­plic­ant fails to bring ac­tion with­in such time lim­it, the court re­turns the bill of ex­change and lifts the at­tach­ment or­der.

¹Where the lost bill of ex­change is not presen­ted with­in the fixed time lim­it, the court must pro­nounce its can­cel­la­tion.

²Fol­low­ing can­cel­la­tion of the bill of ex­change, the ap­plic­ant may still as­sert his claim on the bill against the ac­cept­or.

¹Even be­fore the can­cel­la­tion, the court may or­der the ac­cept­or to de­pos­it the bill amount or even to pay it against se­cur­ity.

²Such se­cur­ity is li­able to the bona fide ac­quirer of the bill of ex­change. It is re­leased if the bill of ex­change is can­celled or the claims on the bill are oth­er­wise ex­tin­guished.

¹Where the ma­tur­ity date of a bill of ex­change falls on a Sunday or a pub­lic hol­i­day, pay­ment may not be de­man­ded un­til the fol­low­ing work­ing day. Like­wise, all oth­er ac­tions re­lat­ing to the bill of ex­change, and in par­tic­u­lar present­a­tion for ac­cept­ance and protest, may take place only on a work­ing day.

²Where the last day of a time lim­it with­in which such an ac­tion must be taken falls on a Sunday or a pub­lic hol­i­day¹, the time lim­it is ex­ten­ded to in­clude the next work­ing day. Hol­i­days fall­ing with­in the time lim­it are in­cluded when com­put­ing it.

When com­put­ing stat­utory time lim­its or time lim­its in­dic­ated on the bill of ex­change, the day on which they com­mence is not in­cluded.

Days of res­pite, wheth­er stat­utory or by court or­der, are not re­cog­nised.

¹The cor­rect place at which to present bills of ex­change for ac­cept­ance or pay­ment, to make protest, to sub­mit a re­quest for is­sue of a du­plic­ate bill and to take all oth­er bill-re­lated ac­tions in re­spect of a spe­cif­ic per­son is that per­son's busi­ness premises or, where none ex­ist, his private ad­dress.

²Such busi­ness premises or ad­dress must be as­cer­tained with all due di­li­gence.

³However, if in­quir­ies to the po­lice or post of­fice of the rel­ev­ant loc­al­ity are un­suc­cess­ful, no fur­ther in­vest­ig­a­tion is re­quired.

¹De­clar­a­tions in re­spect of bills of ex­change must be signed by hand.

²The sig­na­ture by hand may not be re­placed by a mech­an­ic­al re­pro­duc­tion there­of, by a mark, even if au­then­tic­ated, or by any oth­er form of au­then­tic­a­tion by not­ary.

³The sig­na­ture of a blind per­son must be au­then­tic­ated.

¹A per­son's ca­pa­city to in­cur li­ab­il­ity as a party to a bill is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try of which he is a cit­izen. Where such law provides that the law of a dif­fer­ent coun­try is defin­it­ive, the lat­ter is ap­plic­able.

²A per­son who, un­der the law stip­u­lated in the pre­vi­ous para­graph, lacks ca­pa­city to in­cur li­ab­il­ity as a party to a bill is non­ethe­less ob­liged if he ap­pends his sig­na­ture in the ter­rit­ory of a coun­try un­der whose law he would have such ca­pa­city.

¹The form of a de­clar­a­tion on a bill of ex­change is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory the de­clar­a­tion was signed.

²However, where a de­clar­a­tion on a bill of ex­change that is in­val­id un­der the pre­vi­ous para­graph would be val­id un­der the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory a sub­sequent de­clar­a­tion is signed, the valid­ity of the later de­clar­a­tion is not af­fected by any form­al de­fects of the earli­er de­clar­a­tion.

³Sim­il­arly, a de­clar­a­tion on a bill of ex­change giv­en by one Swiss na­tion­al abroad is val­id in re­la­tion to an­oth­er Swiss na­tion­al in Switzer­land provided it sat­is­fies the form­al re­quire­ments laid down by Swiss law.

The form­al re­quire­ments and time lim­its for protest and the form­al re­quire­ments for oth­er ac­tions to ex­er­cise or safe­guard rights un­der bills of ex­change are de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory the protest is to be made or the ac­tion to be taken.

The time lim­its for ex­er­cising rights of re­course are de­term­ined for all in­ter­ested parties by the law of the place in which the bill of ex­change was drawn.

¹The ef­fects of de­clar­a­tions of com­mit­ment made by the ac­cept­or of a bill of ex­change and by the maker of a promis­sory note are de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the bill dom­i­cile or place of pay­ment.

²The ef­fects of oth­er de­clar­a­tions on bills of ex­change are de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory the de­clar­a­tions were signed.

The law of the bill dom­i­cile de­term­ines wheth­er the ac­cept­ance of a bill of ex­change may be lim­ited to part of the bill amount and wheth­er the hold­er is or is not ob­liged to ac­cept a part pay­ment.

The pay­ment of a bill of ex­change at ma­tur­ity, in par­tic­u­lar the com­pu­ta­tion of the ma­tur­ity date and the pay­ment date, and the pay­ment of bills de­nom­in­ated in a for­eign cur­rency are de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory the bill is dom­i­ciled.

Claims for un­just en­rich­ment against the drawee, the dom­i­cili­ate and the per­son or firm for whose ac­count the draw­er drew the bill are de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the law of the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory these per­sons are res­id­ent.

The law of the place of is­sue de­term­ines wheth­er the hold­er of a bill of ex­change ac­quires the un­der­ly­ing claim.

The law of the bill dom­i­cile de­term­ines the meas­ures to be taken in the event of the loss or theft of a bill of ex­change.

A promis­sory note con­tains:

1.

the des­ig­na­tion 'promis­sory note' in the text of the in­stru­ment and in the lan­guage in which it is is­sued;

2.

the un­con­di­tion­al prom­ise to pay a cer­tain sum of money;

3.

the due date;

4.

the place of pay­ment;

5.

the name of the per­son to whom or to whose or­der pay­ment is to be made;

7.

the date on which and place at which the note is made;

8.

the maker's sig­na­ture.

¹An in­stru­ment miss­ing one of the ele­ments stip­u­lated in the pre­vi­ous Art­icle is not deemed a promis­sory note, ex­cept in the cases de­scribed in the fol­low­ing para­graphs.

²A promis­sory note con­tain­ing no in­dic­a­tion of the due date is deemed a sight bill.

³Where no oth­er spe­cif­ic place is men­tioned, the place at which the note is made is deemed both the place of pay­ment and the dom­i­cile of the maker.

⁴A promis­sory note without any in­dic­a­tion of the place in which it was made is deemed made at the place in­dic­ated to­geth­er with the name of the maker.

¹The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the fol­low­ing as­pects of bills of ex­change also ap­ply to promis­sory notes, un­less they run counter to the es­sen­tial nature of the lat­ter:

en­dorse­ment (Art. 1001-1010);

ma­tur­ity (Art. 1023-1027);

pay­ment (Art. 1028-1032);

re­course for non-pay­ment (Art. 1033-1047, 1049-1051);

pay­ment for hon­our (Art. 1054, 1058-1062);

cop­ies (Art. 1066 and 1067);

amend­ments (Art. 1068);

time lim­its (Art. 1069-1071);

an­nul­ment (Art. 1072-1080);

pub­lic hol­i­days, com­pu­ta­tion of time lim­its, ex­clu­sion of days of res­pite, place for ac­tions in con­nec­tion with bills of ex­change, and sig­na­tures (Art. 1081-1085).

²Fur­ther, promis­sory notes are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing bills of ex­change in re­la­tion to bills dom­i­ciled with a third party or at a place oth­er than the drawee's dom­i­cile (Art. 994 and 1017), the in­terest rate com­ment (Art. 995), dis­crep­an­cies in the spe­cific­a­tion of the amount (Art. 996), the con­sequences of in­val­id sig­na­tures (Art. 997) or of sig­na­tures by per­sons lack­ing power of rep­res­ent­a­tion or ex­ceed­ing such power (Art. 998), and blank bills (Art. 1000).

³Like­wise, promis­sory notes are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing bills of ex­change in re­la­tion to bill guar­an­tees (Art. 1020-1022); in the case of Art­icle 1021 para­graph 4, where the de­clar­a­tion does not in­dic­ate the party for whom it is made, the bill guar­an­tee is deemed giv­en for the maker of the promis­sory note.

¹The maker of a promis­sory note is li­able in the same man­ner as the ac­cept­or of a bill of ex­change.

²Promis­sory notes made out for a spe­cified time after sight must be presen­ted for sight to the maker with­in the time lim­its stip­u­lated in Art­icle 1013. Such sight must be con­firmed by the maker on the promis­sory note to­geth­er with the date and the maker's sig­na­ture. The fixed peri­od after sight com­mences on the date on which the sight com­ment is ap­pen­ded. Where the maker re­fuses to con­firm sight and the date, this fact must be es­tab­lished by means of protest (Art. 1015); in this case, the fixed peri­od after sight com­mences on the date on which protest is made.