Suchergebnisse für Financial Technology (FinTech)

Die Registrierungsvereinbarung – insbesondere bei tokenisierten Forderungsrechten

The registration agreement links a certain right to a token or other informational unit on a distributed ledger. In doing so, the issuer creates a ledger-based security, which is an instrument of public faith equivalent to a bearer or «ordre» security and features scriptural legality. The article examines the function and securities law context of the registration agreement, including…

Identification des actionnaires, restrictions de transfert et « white listings »

Identification of shareholders is a topic that is governed by various layers of rules under Swiss law, which were adopted at different times to serve different purposes. Most of these rules were adopted at a time when the structure of capital markets was very different from what it is today, and before the digitalization of securities became a topic. Also, growing focus on the fight against money…

Darf die Nationalbank kryptobasierte Sichtguthaben (wCBDC) ausgeben?

This article examines whether the current monetary law provisions permit the issuance of wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) by the Swiss National Bank. After interpreting the relevant competence provisions, the question can in principle be answered in the affirmative, since wCBDC is not a new, third type of central bank money (in addition to banknotes and traditional sight deposits),…

Echtzeitbankenaufsicht – la panacée?

In recent years, the concept of data-based banking supervision has evolved to influence the dynamics between supervisors and supervised institutions. This de­ve­lopment, if accompanied by adequate implementation, undoubtedly improves the quality of banking supervision. However, data-based supervision does not automatically lead to real-time supervision. While it tends to reduce the time lag…

Insider Trading im digitalen Zeitalter: Neue Herausforderungen und Risiken

Insider trading has existed since the launch of the very first organized trading venues and is now prohibited in most jurisdictions. The growing digitalization of the financial industry is adding several layers of complexity to the topic and creating both new risks and opportunities for market participants. First, digitalization brings about a higher interconnectivity between the global financial…

Sicherung von strukturierten Produkten nach Art. 70 Abs. 2 FIDLEG

The Financial Services Act (FinSA) is a cross-sectoral regulation but still contains certain historically grown sector-specific provisions. Pursuant to Art. 70 FinSA, offers of structured products to private clients must fulfill regulatory requirements regarding issuer, offeror and collateralization. Particularly, the collateralization of structured products issued by SPVs pursuant to Art. 70 para…

Open Finance und Decentralized Finance – Entwicklungen in einem disruptiven Finanzmarktumfeld

The recent technological developments not only impact society in general but they also strongly influence financial markets, even in a disruptive way. Open finance and decentralized finance cause an opening of the financial ecosystem and challenge existing notions; for example, new concepts are needed for the regulation of data access/portability and of digital identity as well as for the…

Do Robots Rule Wealth Management? A Brief Legal Analysis of Robo-Advisors

What are the legal duties of robo-advisors in Switzerland? In this article, we focus on the legal framework arising from Swiss financial market law, contract law and data protection law. We also make a comparison with European law. We first explain how robo-advisors work and conclude that, contrary to what their name may suggest, they are primarily portfolio managers. As financial service providers…

KI Sandboxen für die Schweiz?

A sandbox allows companies to test innovative products, services, and business models in a live market environment. Stemming originally from the FinTech sector, sandboxes have recently gained importance, especially in the context of artificial intelligence, where they are intended to serve to resolve the conflict between data protection and innovation by allowing innovation while ensuring that…

DLT-basierte Finanzprodukte

DLT-based financial products are digitally created assets that can be transferred and stored on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) infrastructure. Internationally, such digitally stored «tokens» are mostly referred to as «crypto assets»; however, there is still a lack of recognized, clear and internationally uniform definitions. Parallel to the spread of crypto assets being treated according…

Digitalisierung des Aktienrechts – Die Ausgabe von Aktien als Registerwertrechte

Increasing digitisation is changing the society and economy, and therefore also affects the law regulating stock corporations. Wherever possible, physical processes are replaced by digital ones. With the emerging of distributed ledger technology (hereinafter DLT), a tendency towards dematerialization can be observed. DLT, or the technology of distributed electronic registers, is the technology of…

Banking and finance disputes: to arbitrate or not to arbitrate, that is the question

“It has been said that “[b]ankers have traditionally preferred judges to arbitrators”. Indeed, where banks or financial institutions are involved in a dispute, state courts have usually been preferred, while arbitration has, so far, often been overlooked. However, in the last decade, the financial landscape has endured colossal changes worldwide. The 2008 crisis led to a paradigm shift. Banks –…

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…

Digitalisierung wettbewerbsrechtlicher Verfahren?

Competition Law proceedings regularly last very long and only limitedly take into account new possibilities for the use of information technology. On the other hand, online procedures have already become more widespread in private dispute resolution and RegTech is being promoted as a new instrument for the exchange of information in the financial market sector. Although it is not possible to…

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…

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…

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…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2016 bis ins vierte Quartal 2017

Als Ausgangspunkt der Finanzkrise gilt gemeinhin der 9. August 2007, als die französische Bank BNP Paribas die Rücknahme von Anteilen an Investmentfonds aussetzte, die im US-Subprime Markt engagiert waren.¹ In der Folge profilierten sich die Notenbanken als unabdingbare Stützen des Finanzsystems.² Die Finanzkrise löste eine gigantische Regulierungswelle aus, die bis heute nicht gänzlich…

Corporate Governance auf der Blockchain

It is within the context of crypto-currencies that Blockchain first gained importance as a new technology. In the meantime, it has been recognized that this technology can also be used in the corporate environment. Such usage would have significant effects on corporate governance within companies (for example, in connection with the transparency of ownership, the handling of voting rights,…

Neuerfindung des Finanzsektors?

Although digitalization embraces practically all areas of society and economy, in the financial sector, the use of these new technologies started very early and were particularly intense. As financial products are largely based on information, the usage of such technologies are also the basis for financial systems, payment infrastructures, trading platforms and crypto-currencies. Owing to the…

Risikomanagement in Finanzinstitutionen

In financial institutions risk management has increasingly become a central theme because the amount of types of risk have increased. Apart from credit and market risks, systemic and IT risks play a central role. For this reason, the setup of a comprehensive risk management system (both organisational and also connected to specific individuals) is imperative. Given the increased digitalisation of…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht Mitte 2014 bis ins vierte Quartal 2015

«Jedes Modell stösst an seine Grenzen»: Unter diesem Titel hat der FINMA-Direktor anlässlich der Jahresmedienkonferenz der Behörde vom 31. März 2015 «die allgemeine Modellgläubigkeit in der Bankenbranche» diagnostiziert.¹ Statt noch mehr und komplexere Modelle wünscht er sich «weniger und einfachere Modelle». Angesichts des Umstandes, dass interne Modelle zur Berechnung der…