Öffentliches Recht

Editorial

Am 30. August 2023 fand die 15. Tagung «Quo Vadis – Finanzplatz Schweiz?» unter der Leitung von Rolf Sethe und Christoph B. Bühler statt.

Welches «Too-big-to-fail»-Regime braucht die Schweiz?

On March 19, 2023, the Swiss Finance Minister together with the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA announced the rescue operation for Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss banking group. After having lost the confidence of its customers, creditors and investors and unprecedented deposit outflows a rescue operation by involving the state of Switzerland…

Verfügt die FINMA über genügend wirksame und scharfe Instrumente gegen (höchste) Bankmanager?

In March 2023, Crédit Suisse (CS) had to be taken over by UBS. It was the first global systemically important bank to face imminent resolution since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Unlike UBS in 2008, CS remained well capitalized until the end. But clients had lost confidence in the bank’s management. This led to a bank run and thus to the bank’s demise. The ongoing crisis of specialist and…

Finanzmarktaufsicht zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht

FINMA has been under constant criticism since its inception; the disappearance of Credit Suisse has only added fuel to the fire. The case of FINMA’s attempted enforcement of a capital surcharge – from 2016 until today! –, which is well documented by court rulings, drastically highlights the difficulties of delivering effective supervision in individual cases in accordance with the mandate. …

Die Governance von PostFinance – Zwischen Grundversorgungsauftrag, Systemrelevanz und Kreditverbot

This article deals with the governance of PostFinance, a financial institute held by the Swiss Post. PostFinance has on one hand a service obligation for basic payment transaction services. On the other hand, PostFinance is banned from the credit and mortgage business and has to operate on a restricted business model. On top, PostFinance is qualified as a systemically important financial…

Kantonalbanken im Spannungsfeld von Political Governance und Corporate Governance

Like the other banks, the cantonal banks are facing the challenges of increasing regulation, digitalisation and the persistently low interest rate environment, and are exposed to the accompanying competitive and margin pressure. They have to virtually reinvent their business models and themselves in order to secure their positions as future-oriented financial service providers in their regions…

Klimawandel

Climate litigation against companies has increased significantly in the past couple of years, not only in the United States, but also in Europe. At the same time, regulation with respect to climate change is developing rapidly, such that it may be difficult for companies to identify which laws apply to them and how they should address the legal risks relating to climate change and climate…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2021 bis ins vierte Quartal 2022

Ohne Vertrauen keine funktionsfähige Gemeinschaft! Was für Staat und Gesellschaft gilt, gilt auch für Unternehmen und deren Mitarbeitende auf allen Stufen. Das unternehmensinterne Kontrollumfeld trägt diesem Umstand Rechnung, was sich in einer angemessenen Breite und Tiefe der Kontrollen ausdrücken muss, ohne die Mitarbeitenden auf Schritt und Tritt zu überwachen. Die Enttäuschung von…

Recent developments in Swiss competition law

1. In economic theory, transparency of information is usually seen as a positive condition, which contributes to effective competition. When one turns to competition law, however, it seems that parties are often reluctant for the decisions or judgments relating to their activities and transactions to be published. This sensitivity may sometimes seem rather surprising, especially when one takes into…

Regulierung von künstlicher Intelligenz für FinTech-Anwendungen

New methods of artificial intelligence represent one of the greatest promises and most prospective developments of digitalisation. Artificial intelligence has already enabled numerous innovative applications in the areas of image recognition, medicine, language and mobility, and it is also increasingly being used in the financial market, on which this article focuses. In addition to great…