Suchergebnisse für Berechnung der Beiträge

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…

Bonus als Risiko – Zur Regulierung der variablen Vergütung von Bankorganen

The experience with the Credit Suisse crisis of confidence has once again shown that compensation systems are of considerable importance for the risk management of financial institutions. Inappropriate risks and wrong incentives can endanger the substance and profitability of a bank and thus its stability. This article focuses on the regulation of variable compensation of bank boards and analyzes…

Neuerungen in der Einlagensicherung

The partial revision of the Banking Act and thus an improved depositor protection came into force on 1^st January 2023. CHF 100 000 will remain protected if a bank goes bankrupt, and the financing of the system is strength­ened. Among other things, the new law brings changes for joint account holders. Parts of the revision came into force immediately. Transitional periods apply to others. CS…

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…

Zur Genehmigungsfiktion in Banken-AGB – eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der bundesgerichtlichen Rechtsprechung

In practice, the fiction of consent has become a veritable all-purpose weapon of banks and other financial service providers. In disputes with their clients banks regularly argue that the client has…

Personalvorsorge im Kontext von M&A-Transaktionen

In the context of M&A transactions or restructurings, effects on occupational benefits are not always considered in time. This article examines questions that arise in this context, in particular regarding the change of the employee benefit institution and the possible takeover of an affiliation contract. With a view to the practice of the Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Administrative…

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…

Le dommage d’investissement et sa preuve

Many civil claims against financial advisers and portfolio managers fail because they do not meet the high threshold set out by Swiss courts for the allegation and proof of the claimant’s loss. This article critically reviews the extensive case law on the topic. We submit that unauthorized financial transactions are distinct from other defective transactions. Following long-established case law…

Sekundärnutzung von Mobilitätsdaten: Infrastruktur und Governance bei Mobility-as-a-Service

Proponents and opponents hotly debate the so-called secondary use of data in sectors as diverse as health, education, energy and mobility. The parallelism of these discussions has led politicians to call for a framework law on the secondary use of data. By choosing Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), a promising service in the mobility sector, this article explores two connected features such a…

Relationship Agreements zwischen Vertragsfreiheit und zwingendem Aktienrecht

Relationship agreements between listed companies and large shareholders have gained in popularity over the past years. Relationship agreements cover such topics as the shareholder’s representation on the board of directors, voting at shareholder meetings, the shareholder’s right to receive information from the company, and exit provisions (e.g., lock-up and standstill undertakings). From the…

Vergütung der Rechenschaft über Retrozessionen

Based on Art. 400 para. 1 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, financial service providers must inform their clients if they receive payments or other benefits from third parties in connection with their client-related services (so-called inducements, kickbacks, or retrocessions). This article analyzes to what extent and under which conditions financial service providers can charge additional fees…

EU-Product-Governance – Ein Vorbild für die Schweiz?

In 2020 the Financial Services Act (FinSA) entered into force. The provisions on rules of conduct and organizational duties are more or less based on the provisions of MiFID II. However, the regulatory complex on product governance has not been adopted by the Swiss legislator. This article examines whether this decision was convincing. As a result, it turns out to be wise, because the EU-product…

Grüne Finanzprodukte

For environmentally sustainable financial products to be recognized by market participants, sufficient information about their environmental risks and impacts must be available. However, without regulatory measures, there are insufficient incentives for product providers to disclose the relevant information. The market is unable to correct these information deficits itself. The regulatory vacuum…

Informationspflichten bei der Kapitalanlage – von einzelfallbezogenen und von allgemein gehaltenen Informationen

When it comes to information obligations of financial service providers, the distinction between case-by-case information and generic information is of fundamental importance. While generic information obligations are typically fulfilled by publishing a brochure online and therefore hardly bring any benefit for investors, case-by-case information obligations usually lead to an improved…

Salärgovernance und neues Aktienrecht

In determining the compensation of directors and top management, the board of directors of public companies is faced with a structural conflict of interest. The aim to mitigate this conflict through an appropriate design of the procedure forms the essence of the say-on-pay rules introduced by the Swiss electorate in a public vote in 2013 and implemented on a transitional basis in the Ordinance…

Die Rolle der FINMA bei Vergütungen in Banken und Versicherungen

Compensation and remuneration schemes in financial institutions always have been, and still are, a hot potato. The past decade has been particularly eventful in terms of both regulation and supervision, not only in Switzerland, but also abroad. Against this backdrop, this article aims to discuss the role of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, FINMA, with regard to compensation in…

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…

Behandlung der Beiträge der Gesellschafter im Rahmen der Liquidation der einfachen Gesellschaft und ihre Beteiligung am Liquidationsergebnis

The contributions which the partners of a simple partnership must make in order to achieve the partnership’s purpose may be of different sizes and also of different natures. If the partners do not regulate in the articles of partnership how their contributions are to be treated in case of liquidation of the simple partnership, the statutory rule is applied. This, however, is only very summary,…

Kapitalerhöhung, Kapitalherabsetzung, insb. innerhalb des Kapitalbands, und der Erwerb und die Veräusserung eigener Aktien

The corporate law reform was passed by the Swiss Parliament on 19 June 2020. It will most probably enter into force in 2023. Its most innovative feature, the capital band, raises a lot of interesting legal issues, inter alia regarding its relationship with the provisions on the acquisition and disposal of own shares. The following article analyses this relationship and the relationship of capital…

Interessenkonflikte unter dem neuen Aktienrecht

As every person, board members and managers have or represent interests. It is unavoidable and nothing «evil» that these interests may sometimes not be aligned with the interests of the company they serve. However, if not properly dealt with, conflicts of interest may become a problem harming the company. As part of the 2020 revision of corporate law, the Swiss parliament has adopted a new art…

Retro-Strafbarkeit nach Art. 158 StGB: Questions and (some) Answers

In 2018, the Swiss Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on payments from third parties in financial services (so-called inducements, kickbacks, or retrocessions). In essence, it held that the acceptance of inducements by asset managers and their concealment vis-a-vis the clients are a criminal offense. This article discusses the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision and explores some of…

Rechtsfragen des LIBOR-Wegfalls

For decades, the LIBOR has been the most widely used benchmark interest rate for financial contracts. At the end of 2021, following major manipulation scandals and a dwindling reliability of the rate as a benchmark, LIBOR will be discontinued for most currencies including the Swiss franc. As numerous LIBOR agreements such as credit agreements or capital market instruments (mainly OTC interest…

Das schweizerische Bankprivatrecht 2020 | Le droit bancaire privé suisse 2020

Das Jahr 2020 war in vielerlei Hinsicht aussergewöhnlich. Demgegenüber bewegen sich die Entscheide zum privaten Bankrecht, die in diesem Jahr gefällt wurden, zu einem Grossteil im Rahmen des…

Das Profiling im neuen Datenschutzrecht

The revised Data Protection Act will introduce the concept of profiling into Swiss law. This term will be defined in the same way as in the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as any automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person. Unlike the GDPR, the new Act will create a special category of high-risk profiling, which is…

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…

«Open Banking» in der Schweiz – Herausforderungen an den Schnittstellen von Finanzmarkt-, Datenschutz- und Kartellrecht

«Open Banking» challenges traditional financial institutions in Switzerland and around the world. It poses strategic as well as legal compliance challenges. The present study delimits the (sometimes synonymously used) terms «Open Banking» and «API Banking» to the effect that Open Banking presupposes an access to the banking account (XS2A) on the basis of non-discriminatory criteria. It thus…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2019 bis ins vierte Quartal 2020

Die FINMA ist verpflichtet, sich an strategischen Zielen zu orientieren.¹ 2021 bricht die nächste dreijährige Strategieperiode an; der Bundesrat hat die Ziele im November 2020 genehmigt.² Aus den strategischen Zielen ergeben sich die Leitlinien für die operative Tätigkeit der FINMA. Erstmals finden sich in einem separaten Dokument zu den einzelnen strategischen Zielen «Schwerpunkte der Umsetzung…

Kartellrechtliche Fragen bei der Gründung eines Joint Ventures

Opening up new markets or pursuing major projects can often only be achieved with partners, which is why companies form joint ventures. When planning and implementing such cooperation projects, economic and contractual considerations are in practice the main focus. However, the influence of antitrust law on this form of cooperation should not be underestimated. The relevance of antitrust law is…

Prospektpflicht nach FIDLEG

Switzerland has modernized its prospectus law by introducing new extensive rules in the Financial Services Act. The legislator closely considered the existing rules of SIX Swiss Exchange for the admission to trading and the rules applicable in the EEA. Fundamental changes are the mandatory review by a review body of prospectuses to be published in case of a public offer. In connection with the…

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…

Haftung für automatisierte Entscheidungen – Herausforderungen in der Praxis

It is now technically possible for decisions to be made by autonomous means without any human involvement. The ability of automated decision making systems to act increasingly autonomously poses new challenges to the current legal framework. For example, in addition to contractual and non-contractual liability bases, proposals are being made for liability under the Swiss Product Liability Act or…

Credit Scoring, AML Software & Risk Profiling: Automatisierte Entscheidungen im Rahmen von Finanzdienstleistungen

Techniques of automated decision making, including profiling are, no doubt, also of interest to financial service providers. This essay describes three such applications (credit scoring, transaction monitoring for AML purposes, risk profiling for investors) and discusses their possible compliance with the requirements under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, as well as the proposed new…

Der Kundenschutz und die FINMA – heute und morgen

To effectively protect financial market clients, an integrated approach combining prudential and conduct supervision is most conducive to achieving the desired results. It has already been applied in principles-based Swiss financial market regulation and supervision and is practised in a risk-oriented manner. Besides public financial market law, further aspects such as civil law and criminal law…

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…

Licht und Schatten der geplanten Reform der Einlagensicherung

The Swiss deposit insurance scheme is currently under review. In spring 2019, the Federal Council proposed a reform of the existing scheme and conducted a public consultation. In their comments, the…

Konzept und Praxis der aktienrechtlichen Sanierung

This essay deals with capital loss and overindebtedness and the related duties of the Board of Directors according to the current Swiss Code of Obligations. Furthermore, a look is taken at the future Swiss restructuring law. It has been concluded that Swiss restructuring law does little credit to its name as most restructuring proceedings end in bankruptcy of the respective company. One possible…

Der Verfügbarkeits-Service Level bei Cloud- und anderen IT-Outsourcingverhältnissen

In the context of IT outsourcing and cloud relationships, it is customary to agree on performance quality parameters, so-called service levels. These regularly form part of the description of the services to be rendered by the provider. Consequently, service provision in accordance with the service levels at the same time is due fulfillment of the provider’s contractual obligations. One of the…

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…

Fortress Europe: Die Äquivalenzverfahren der EU im Bereich der Finanzdienstleistungen

The European Union is by far the most important ­market for Swiss cross-border financial services. So far, the key strategy for market access has been to tailor Swiss financial regulation so as to achieve equivalence with EU law. However, the analysis of the current equivalence procedures reveals that equivalence is not the door opener one had hoped for. Core activities such as deposit-taking,…

Ist die neue Finanzmarkt­regulierung funktionsfähig?

The article describes the causes of financial market crises. It assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the legislative measures taken since the crisis of 2007/­2008. Finally, it outlines what additional or alternative measures could be taken to increase the stability of the financial markets and to improve supervision.

Bankgeschäfte nach der Krise: Safer, simpler, fairer?

Ten years after the global financial crisis, the Financial Stability Board reports that regulation has built a «safer, simpler and fairer financial system». While there are indeed notable improvements in the regulatory architecture, the question remains whether banking, as seen from a retail customer perspective, has become safer, simpler, and fairer. This article argues that, overall, retail…

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…

Wie die Arbeit, so der Lohn – Vergütung in privaten und kotierten Gesellschaften

Rising executive pay is a vital topic for shareholders, proxy advisors, academics and the wider public. It is worth noting that the remuneration of auditors for their audit services has hardly attracted shareholder attention even though falling audit fees may be a reason for weaknesses in corporate control. In this perspective it looks like an anomaly that the remuneration of the party…

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…

Vollgeld-Initiative und Alternativkonzepte

A full-reserve banking system as requested by a Swiss popular initiative would not bring the promised benefits. Accepting the initiative would entail unforeseeable risks for the Swiss economy. To prevent these risks, vol­untary full-reserve accounts have been suggested to complement the existing fractional reserve system. This article discusses possible concepts for such vol­untary full-reserve…

Vertrauen, Kredit und Kreditsicherheiten

The relationship between creditor and debtor has often been described as a quintessential relationship based on trust, as evidenced by etymological origin of the term credit. Credit relationships are indeed shaped by the risk of opportunistic behavior of the debtor and principal agent problems. Limiting these risks by providing adequate incentives for cooperative behavior is a key objective in…

Die regulatorische Antwort auf FinTech: Evolution oder Revolution? Eine Verortung aktueller Entwicklungen

While technological improvements have shaped the financial industry and its regulation for decades, FinTech is the buzzword of the hour. Rapidly developing digital technologies allow new market entrants to disrupt the traditional intermediary-based provision of financial services (I.). These new businesses – in particular those that operate payment systems or engage in crowdfunding – may clash…

Finanznotlagerecht

The Bill of 2016 for a revision of the Swiss Corporation Law addresses, with new and quite lengthy dispositions, the thorny problem of corporate reorganizations in the event of upcoming financial difficulties. On the one hand, the classical and quite formal equity-related ­approach of European Continental Law to prevent ­«unlawful trading» is maintained, i.e. the Board’s duty to take immediate…

Salär-Governance

2017 was a special year for Swiss listed companies. Several compensation reports met fierce resistance from shareholders and proxy advisors, and in one case, a binding vote on executive compensation was rejected. The 2017 proxy season has shown that shareholders do not appreciate compensation models in which osten­sibly pay and performance are not related. Also, the season has shown that over…

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…