Security Services in Switzerland

Switzerland runs three genuinely different close protection markets under one flag. Bern’s federal and diplomatic quarter is an intelligence and information-security problem more than a physical one. Geneva mixes UN and WTO espionage risk with HNWI wealth-targeting. Zurich is almost purely a private-banking-driven, financial-crime-adjacent environment with a hard seasonal spike each January. A client assuming Swiss security needs are uniform across the three cities is planning against the wrong risk.

No national licence: the cantonal system explained

Switzerland has no single federal private security licence. Each canton, Bern, Geneva and Zurich among them, applies its own act, held together by the inter-cantonal Concordat on Private Security, CCPCS, with SECO registering operators who work across more than one canton. Practically, this means a valid Geneva cantonal authorisation does not transfer automatically to a Zurich assignment, and clients should confirm the specific cantonal licence for the specific city, not assume national coverage exists. Our bodyguard hire coverage across all three cities runs through operators holding the relevant local cantonal authorisation.

Bern: information security over physical threat

The Swiss Federal Parliament, Federal Council and several UN-affiliated bodies sit in Bern, and the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, NDB, has reported rising foreign intelligence activity targeting Switzerland generally. For principals attending federal or intergovernmental meetings, digital hygiene and counter-surveillance discipline at the meeting venue matter more than the physical protective posture, which our advance security survey and counter-surveillance services address directly.

Geneva and Zurich: two different wealth-security problems

Geneva’s UN, WHO, ICRC and WTO concentration creates active espionage interest around multilateral negotiations, layered on top of a private banking sector that draws its own HNWI-targeted property crime. Zurich strips out the diplomatic layer and leaves the financial one: UBS’s home city, where residential burglary and luxury vehicle theft targeting private banking clients is the documented risk pattern, intensifying sharply during the WEF-adjacent period each January. Our executive protection teams calibrate discreetly for whichever of these two profiles applies.

Source: Concordat on Private Security, CCPCS. FCDO Travel Advice: Switzerland (2026). Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, NDB, Situation Report 2025. OSAC Switzerland Country Security Report 2025.

For full threat, zone and regulatory detail city by city, see our Bern close protection guide, Geneva security briefing, and Zurich close protection guide.