Suchergebnisse für Umfang der Sicherstellung

Bail-in-Bonds

Following the financial crisis of 2007/08, the bail-in has established itself as the preferred resolution strategy for large banks throughout Switzerland and internationally. According to the concept, it is not the bank’s owners or the state that are to finance a resolution but the bank’s creditors. This is to be achieved by converting a certain type of debt called «bail-in-bonds» into equity…

Schiedsklauseln in den Statuten von Schweizer Aktiengesellschaften und GmbH

The Swiss legislator clarified that the articles of associations of Swiss companies limited by shares and limited liability companies may include arbitration clauses. This note first discusses issues such as arbitrability, validity and scope of statutory arbitration clauses, i.e., issues arising in the context of arbitration clauses and arbitration agreements alike. It then discusses an issue…

Das Kapitalband

The revision of the Swiss law on companies limited by shares, which came into force on January 1, 2023, introduced the capital band («Kapitalband»). This new legal institution leads to more flexibility for the companies with regard to equity financing by giving the shareholders the possibility to authorize the board of directors to increase and decrease the share capital without a prior…

Sanierungsausnahme und selektives Opting out/up – ein Vergleich

If a listed company is in financial difficulties and has found a potential restructurer who wishes to acquire a larger shareholding but does not wish to be under an obligation to make an offer to acquire all listed equity securities of the company, under the Swiss takeover law two alternatives stand in the foreground: applying for an exemption from the obligation to make an offer for…

Berücksichtigung von ESG-Präferenzen im Finanzdienstleistungs­geschäft

On 1 January 2023, the Swiss Bankers Association’s «Guidelines for the financial service providers on the integration of ESG-preferences and ESG-risks into investment advice and portfolio management» entered into force. This marks the first binding Swiss (self-)regulation on Sustainable Finance at the point of sale. One of the key amendments includes the financial service providers’ duty to…

Das Supervisory Privilege für Akten aus dem Aufsichtsverhältnis

The Swiss Supervisory Privilege, which was added to FINMASA in 2016, is a new legal institution. It empowers FINMA to protect documents from the supervisory relationship between a supervised entity and itself by prohibiting their disclosure to third-party authorities and other third parties without FINMA’s consent if there are grounds for doing so that are particularly worthy of protection…

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…

Neues Aktienrecht als Inspiration für den Gläubigerschutz bei Umstrukturierungen

What is the adequate level of creditor protection in corporate restructurings? The present article sheds a critical light on the current creditor protection provisions in the Swiss Merger Act and proposes, inspired by provisions of the new Swiss Stock Corporation Act, a partial reform of the Swiss Merger Act.

Kooperationsformen zwischen Banken und Drittanbietern aus vertrags- und datenschutzrechtlicher Perspektive

Open Banking or Open Finance essentially means the exchange of financial data between different financial service providers including third party providers at the request of the customer. From a civil liability and data protection perspective this paper examines the legal relationships between banks, third party providers, platforms and customers on the basis of four possible «model forms of…

Moderne Formen der Generalversammlung im revidierten Aktienrecht 2020

The revision in 2020 of the Swiss law on companies limited by shares (Aktiengesellschaft) as created the legal basis for modernizing the annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders of limited companies, also making it more flexible. Today’s electronic means of communication have opened up new possibilities for how AGMs can be conducted. Especially in large corporations, but also in smaller…

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…

Die Auswirkungen des Covid-19-Solidarbürgschaftsgesetzes auf das Aktienrecht

In spring 2020, the Swiss Federal Council launched, among other things, the Covid-19 credit programme in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. About 20% of all Swiss corporations have subsequently taken out a Covid-19 loan. Initially, the Covid-19 Joint and Several Surety Ordinance («Covid-19-Solidarbürgschaftsverordnung») served as the legal basis of the credit programme. Later the ordinance was…

Können Investitionskontrollen für gleich lange Spiesse sorgen?

Amidst global protectionist tendencies and in view of major takeovers by foreign state-controlled companies calls for increased public control of foreign investment have been getting louder around the globe. Most recently, the Swiss parliament approved a motion obliging the Swiss government to prepare a draft bill regarding foreign investment screening. Apart from national security concerns,…

Daten-Governance und Cloud Banking im neuen Datenschutzrechtsumfeld

Banking is a data-sensitive business. With the adoption of the new Data Protection Act the data protection level will also be increased in Switzerland, amongst others in the data security context. Banks, often using cloud services for efficiency reasons, will have to adapt their data governance framework in the near future: Data processing and storing must meet the data protection and data…

Das Kapitalband im neuen Aktienrecht

On June 19, 2020, the National Council and the Council of States adopted the revision of the Swiss law on companies limited by shares. This article deals with the capital band («Kapitalband») that introduces the possibility for shareholders to authorize the board of directors to increase and reduce the share capital without previous resolution by the general meeting. In line with an…

Die Pflichten des Verwaltungsrates bei drohender Zahlungsunfähigkeit nach neuem Aktienrecht

On 19 June 2020 the Swiss parliament adopted the final text of the new provisions of the Swiss Code of Obligations relating to the revised law on companies limited by shares. Among other things, the relevant provisions cover situations of financial distress and apply to companies limited by shares as well as to other company forms. Aside of the pre-existing legal provisions governing the capital…

Praktische Problemfelder und Lösungsansätze in Bezug auf die «FinTech»-Bewilligungsvoraussetzungen von Art. 1b BankG

The piece at hand addresses in depth the FinTech license according to art. 1b of the Swiss Banking Act (BA) that is in force since January 1^st 2019. The FinTech license provides for a new category of a regulatory status for FinTech institutions that do not offer typical banking activities, but whose business touches certain elements of banking. It aims to foster innovation in the financial market…

Automatisierte Entscheidungen: Grundfragen aus der Perspektive des Privatrechts

Data protection law addresses the issue that more and more (complex) decisions are taken automatically. A closer look at the regulatory approaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Council of Europe’s Convention 108 and the draft Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (draft FADP) leads to two conclusions. On the one hand, the scope of application of these provisions is too…

Automatisierte Entscheidungen: Perspektive Datenschutzrecht und ­öffentliche Verwaltung

In the area of government action, automated individual decisions in the sense of the draft revision of the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (E-DSG) are fully automated decrees. Art. 19 E-DSG provides, on the one hand, for a labelling obligation for such decrees and, on the other hand, for certain decisions, the person concerned is granted the opportunity, upon request, to state his point of view…

Bestimmung von Vertragskonditionen im Rahmen automatisierter Entscheidungen

Automated decision making has become increasingly popular in the context of contracting. Essential contractual conditions, in particular the price, are automatically determined based on a number of factors, a wealth of data and by the use of algorithms. Automated decision making for contractual terms raises a number of legal issues and questions, in particularly related to data protection, fair…

Die (neuen) Pflichten im Execution-only-Geschäft: Zusammenspiel von FIDLEG und OR

As a part of the new financial markets architecture, the Financial Services Act (FinSA) entered into force on 1 January 2020. It introduces unified rules for offering financial services and…

«Exit» aus der Nachlassstundung nach erfolgreicher Sanierung – ­Erste Erkenntnisse zum neuen Art. 296a SchKG

Under Swiss insolvency laws, companies in financial distress aiming at a restructuring rather than a winding-up can opt for a debt-restructuring moratorium (Nachlassstundung) as an alternative to bankruptcy proceedings. While composition proceedings are significantly less frequent in practice than formal bankruptcy proceedings, they are often used by major companies with numerous employees and a…

Anspruch auf Sicherstellung bei Kapitalherabsetzung und Liquidation

The article analyses the creditor’s right to ask for his/her claim to be secured in the procedures of capital ­decrease and liquidation. The strict and very similar rules in both procedures aim to protect the creditors. The authors conclude that a creditor’s right to ask for security shall be subject to the same requirements in both procedures. In this article, the authors state the following: (i…

Crowdinvesting mittels Initial Coin Offering – Regulierungsaufgaben im -Token-Universum

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a phenomenon with similar characteristics as the cryptocurrency boom. Projects that typically have no history of producing a product or revenue raise capital by issuing their own tokens to investors. Therefore, the Federal Council adopted in December 2018 a report on the legal framework for blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the financial…

Das FIDLEG-Prospektrecht ante portas – Guter Anlegerschutz?

The new Financial Services Act (FinSA) will introduce Switzerland’s first comprehensive prospectus regime. While conceptually modeled after the European Union’s Prospectus Directive and its recent replacement, the Prospectus Regulation, the new Swiss prospectus regime employs traditional Swiss legislation techniques and, constructively, abstains from specifically regulating every detail. The…

Transaktionsbezogene vs. portfoliobezogene Anlageberatung unter FIDLEG: keine einfache Abgrenzung

With the entry into force of the Financial Services Act (FinSA) on 1 January 2020 the transaction-related ­investment advice will be introduced as a new category of investment advice to be distinguished from the portfolio-related investment advice. The correct differentiation between the two types of investment recommendations is crucial to determine the scope of application of the suitability…

Compliance-Anforderungen für Schweizer Asset Manager alternativer ­Investmentfonds

The European Directive 2011/61/EU (AIFMD) was a reaction of the European legislator to the financial ­crisis of 2007/2008. The Directive aims to provide for a harmonized and stringent regulatory and supervisory framework for the activities within the EU of all Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM). Due to its fund manager focused approach, AIFMD imposes authorization requirements and…

Strafprozessuale Kontosperren bei ausstehenden Lombardkrediten – Ein Problem für die kreditgebende Bank

Lombard credits are a widespread financial instrument. They may however lead to problems for the lender, usually a bank, if the assets pledged as a security for the loan become the subject of a seizure by criminal authorities. A seizure renders it impossible for the bank to realize the assets if the borrower is in default with repayment obligations. In order to have the seizure lifted, the bank…

Sanktionen

Access to the EU Single Market has always been a key concern of Swiss financial market policy. However, in the aftermath of the crisis, the EU has considerably tightened its third country regime by requiring a demonstration of «equivalent regulatory and supervisory frameworks». Given that the EU has recently implemented tougher sanctions throughout its Single Rulebook, obtaining favorable …

Automatischer Informationsaustausch: das Ende des steuerlichen Bankgeheimnisses?

Fundamental changes occurred in Swiss international tax law since 2009. These changes directly effected and fundamentally limited the scope of traditional Swiss banking secrecy with regard to foreign clients and foreign tax authorities. This paper analyses if, from a legal and practical perspective, anything remains of traditional Swiss «tax banking secrecy». The conclusion is that there are…

Führen die neuen Technologien zur Disruption der Finanzmarktregulierung?

Technological developments and respective changes in business models require adaptations of the financial regulations. The need to adopt risk-oriented rules has become apparent already some time ago. Recently, regulators acknowledged the desirability of introducing innovation-supporting rules (for FinTech enterprises). The most disruptive effects, however, come from the new distributed ledger…

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown – Zur Rolle des Verwaltungsrates in schweizerischen Publikumsgesellschaften

The board of directors of a Swiss public company is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Shareholders breathe down directors’ necks with earnings expectations, but the results are delivered by an executive management under the board’s control rather than by the board itself. The executives who run the business on a day-to-day basis know the company better than the board. This allows them to…

Derivatgeschäfte: Anwendung der FinfraG-Regulierung auf Schweizer Handels- und Industrieunternehmen

The Swiss rules on the conduct in connection with derivative transactions and trading set out in the Federal Act on Financial Market Infrastructures and Market Conduct in Securities and Derivatives Trading (FMIA) and its implementing ordinances were enacted more than two years ago, subject to applicable phase-in periods. However, when it comes to their applicability to commercial and industrial…

Die Zukunft des digitalisierten Rechnungswesens

The digitization of economics does not only effect parts on an entity but the entire value chain, notably inclusive of the accounting department. Should we have to expect a revolution in such a way that millions of bookkeepers will be replaced by machines in the near-future? Or do these new technologies have the potential to automate routine tasks while supporting more complex, non-routine…

Kundenvertrauen in Banken

Banking’s most important currency is customer trust. Two recent surveys show that customer trust is multifaceted and includes a foundational, an integrity-related, a practical and a strategic dimension. The strategic dimension is the most important, as it relates to the customers’ trust that the bank puts their needs and interests at the center of its activity. This contribution analyzes the…

Vertrauen im Kapitalmarkt

Trust is an essential element of a capital market. The market participants want to be confident that the other actors behave as expected. Financial market regulation supports the underlying expectations by ensuring transparency, prohibiting market abuses, stipulating various duties and imposing sanctions or liability in the event of breach. The objectives of most regulation, i.e., the protection…

Das Aktienkapital im Entwurf zur Aktienrechtsrevision

On November 23, 2016, the Federal Council published its proposal for a revised law on companies limited by shares. This article deals with the share capital, one of the key aspects of the proposed revision. First, it addresses the specific characteristic of Swiss law, according to which shares have a nominal value. Second, the article analyzes how the procedures of capital changes are regulated in…

Der Aktionärbindungsvertrag: Einfache Gesellschaft oder Innominatvertrag?

The present article shows that shareholders agreements are not as of necessity general partnership agreements. As a rule they are rather innominate contracts for which the same rules apply as for nominate contracts, in particular re the questions of consensus, interpretation and amendments. In this respect the real will of the parties is relevant in the first place and only in the second place…

Kernfragen der Aktienrechtsrevision

On November 23, 2016, the Federal Council published its proposal for a revised law on companies limited by shares. This article deals with four key aspects of the proposed revision. First, it addresses the proposed amendments regar­ding the capital structure. The authors thereby focus on the rules for capital increases, decreases and the possibility to introduce a so called «capital band». Secon…

Das Finanzmarktstrafrecht der Schweiz – Status quo unter Einbezug der neusten Gesetzesänderungen, des internationalen Einflusses sowie der anstehenden Neuerungen

The incidents that contributed to the financial crisis and as outcome of this the increase of regulatory density, led as expected also to a rise of criminal provisions. As a result the penal situation for the financial market participants is becoming more and more complex. This overview of the financial market criminal law in Switzerland includes most recent legislative amendments, inter alia the…

Klagen gegen Finanzdienstleister im FIDLEG-Entwurf – ­eine kritische Würdigung

The draft Swiss Financial Services Act («Finanzdienst­leistungsgesetz»/«FIDLEG») aims at the improvement of customer protection. To that end, it also contains procedural rules that shall facilitate lawsuits of custo­mers. Customers do not have to advance court fees nor have to deposit a security for the counterparty’s costs. In certain situations, a customer is relieved from paying any litigation…

Organisierte Handelssysteme im neuen FinfraG – Versuch einer ­regulatorischen Kategorisierung

The new Financial Market Infrastructures Act (FMIA) introduced a new regulatory framework for trading venues and organized trading that was inspired by EU regulations EMIR, MiFID II and MiFIR that concep­tually distinguishes between stock exchanges, multila­teral trading facilities (MTFs) and organized trading facilities (OTFs). Among these regulatory categories the OTF poses various difficulties…

Wettbewerb zwischen internationalen Standards

Competition between different standards can bring about efficiencies but the financial crisis has shown that the coordination and partial harmonization of these standards has advantages that are not to be underestimated. The following contribution analyses the possible competition of standards with a view towards the actors and the recipients of regulation. The theore­tical approach is clarified…

Financial Benchmarks – Bedeutung und internationale ­Regulierungsbestrebungen

The manipulation scandals surrounding the key interest rate LIBOR and benchmarks used in foreign exchange trading have rendered financial benchmarks a regulatory phenomenon. While they all serve a similar purpose, i.e. to provide a reference in a wide range of financial transactions, financial benchmarks vary significantly in their importance, data basis, underlying market and determination…

Internationale Standards in den Vorlagen zur neuen Finanzmarktarchitektur

The present article provides an overview of the international financial market architecture with a focus on global standards issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB). It discusses the major advantages as well as the disadvantages of such standards and illustrates their implementation into the Swiss legislation based on specific examples…

Gleichstellung – Ein aktienrechtliches Thema

Article 734e of the Preliminary Draft demands that each gender is represented with at least 30% of the members of the board of directors and the executive committee of large listed companies. Companies that do not comply with this obligation must describe the reasons for such failure and the measures they will take to advance the underrepresented gender in their compensation reports. Although the…

Der «aktuelle Liquiditätsplan» des Vorentwurfs – Ein neuer Fokus für Verwaltungsrat und Revisor in einer drohenden Finanznotlage

The current draft for a revised Corporation Law includes a complete overhaul of the provisions dealing with a financial crisis situation. So far, initiatives to be taken by the Board are triggered exclusively by a massive loss of equity (measured against share capital and legal reserves). The proposed law intends to focus the Board’s attention on liquidity problems and introduces a «liquidity…

Negativzinsen auf Girokontoguthaben bei der SNB – Eine rechtliche ­Betrachtung

In December 2014, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced that it would be imposing negative interest rates on sight deposit account balances at the SNB. In the context of such monetary policy instrument, it is important to differentiate clearly between negative interest the SNB currently applies to sight deposits and the wide-ranging capital controls witnessed during the 1970s which included a…

Die Modernisierung des schweizerischen Abtretungsrechts –Bemerkungen zum Zessionsrecht im OR 2020

The draft for a new General Part of the Swiss Code of Obligations presented by law professors in 2013 includes interesting proposals for a revision of the Swiss assignment law. Following a number of international and foreign precedents, the draft suggests to restrict the effects of contractual no-assignment clauses to the relationship between the debtor and the creditor/assignor, a reform which…

Verletzung der börsenrechtlichen Meldepflicht durch ein nicht innert vier Börsentagen gemeldetes grenzwertrelevantes Verpflichtungsgeschäft

Pursuant to Art. 20 of the Swiss Stock Exchange Act, certain qualified participations in listed companies are to be notified to the company and the stock exchanges on which the securities are listed. Intentional or negligent violations of this notification obligation can be fined, up to CHF 10m in the case of intentional and up to CHF 1m in the case of negligent violations. Regarding the point in…