Banking Regulation Trends & Developments 2023

Asset Managers and Trustees under the New FinIA Supervisory Regime

The Swiss Parliament adopted, along with new financial services legislation, the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) in June 2018 in order to enhance Switzerland's competitiveness in wealth management and to level the playing field for financial institutions. In force since January 2020, FinIA has introduced a new licensing regime for asset managers and trustees. In the new regime, regulated asset managers and trustees are required to be affiliated with a supervisory organisation (SO) that is itself licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Although the SO will oversee the regulated asset managers and trustees on a day-to-day basis, FINMA is the chief supervisory authority and has the authority to take any necessary regulatory actions towards these regulated entities and each SO at any time.