Anlegerschutz durch Trennung?

Since the financial crisis, the attention of international standard-setters and supervisory authorities has increasingly turned to the segregation of financial market participants’ assets from those of their customers, with the latter being held either together with those of other indirect participants (omnibus customer account segregation) or separately (individual customer account segregation). The Federal Council has instructed the Federal Department of Finance to compile, by the end of November 2017, a draft consultation paper on imposing the requirement for omnibus customer account segregation throughout the domestic custody chain.

Switzerland already mandates omnibus customer account segregation in respect of third-party custody of intermediated securities for custody chains with three levels (investor – custodian – central securities depository). Where longer custody chains are involved, however, a gap exists because intermediate third-party custodians do not have to separate…