SFAC Confirms FINMA's Approach To Administrative Assistance With Foreign Regulators

In a decision of 24 April 2025 (B-1427/2025), the Swiss Federal Administrative Court ("SFAC"), was confronted with the question of whether the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA ("FINMA") partook in a fishing expedition by transmitting information to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority ("BaFin").

BaFin contacted FINMA to request international administrative assistance, based on suspicions that a German citizen had failed to submit the required voting rights notifications under German law.

While the investor had submitted certain notifications, he had not disclosed that more than 50% of the shares had been transferred to accounts he held at three banks – despite his individual shareholding remaining below the 3% threshold that would trigger a reporting obligation. At that point, it remained unclear how many shares had been transferred to whom, or whether some were still held in accounts directly or indirectly linked to