  
  
S/C/N/ 1044  
11 February 2021 
(21-1183) Page: 1/2 
Council fo r Trade in Services  Original:  French  
 
  NOTIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE III:3 OF THE   
GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES  
The following notification from the delegation of Switzerland, dated 10 February  2021, is being 
circulated to the Members of the Council for Trade in Services . 
 
______ _________  
 
 
1  MEMBER NOTIFYIN G: 
Switzerland  
 
2  NOTIFICATION UNDER : 
Article III :3 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services  
 
3  DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE : 
1 February  2021 
 
3.1  Duration : 
Indefinite 
 
4  AGENCY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THE MEASURE : 
Federal De partment of Finance (FDF)  
 
5  DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE : 
Measure: 
Federal Ac t on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology  
(DLT)  (RO 2021 33 ) 
 
Description : 
The Federal Act seeks to increase legal certainty , remove hurdles fo r DLT- and blockchain -based  
applications and limit new risks. The new Act is not designed as a specific law, but rather amends 
a number of other federal laws in a targeted  manner . 
 
The A ct adapts , inter alia , securities  law in order to  provide  a legal basis for the trading  of rights 
through electronic registers  and makes target ed changes to intermediated securities  law so as to 
clarify the relationship with the new category of securities . This part of the DLT bill entered into 
effect on 1 February  2021. 
 
The remaining major  provisions of the DLT bill, such as the harmonization of banking law 
provisions on bank insolvency and the establishment  of a new authorization categ ory in financial 
market infrastruc ture law for DLT tradin g systems , should e nter into effect on  1 August 2021. 
 S/C/N/ 1044 
 
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  6  MEMBERS SPECIFICALLY AFFECTED, IF ANY : 
None 
 
7  TEXT  AVAILABLE FROM : 
Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology  
(admin.ch ) 
__________ 