Suchergebnisse für Haftung des Unternehmens für Dienstleister

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…

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…

Wirksame Krisenverhinderung? Das UK Senior Managers Regime und der Archegos-Skandal

The Archegos scandal, which resulted in Credit Suisse incurring losses exceeding CHF 5 billion, stands out as one of the most significant of the many scandals linked to the bank in recent years. It shines a light on financial sector misconduct and underscores the need for stronger individual accountability. Many of the weaknesses in the corporate governance system of the bank which lead up to…

Haftung einer Bank für Geldwäscherei durch Unterlassungen von Angestellten

Der unabhängige Vermögensverwalter X. unterhielt zwei Konten bei der Bank A. SA, die gemäss seinen Angaben für Kommissionen aus seiner Berufstätigkeit und nicht für Kundengelder bestimmt waren…

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…

Editorial

Am 1. September 2022 fand die 14. Tagung «Quo Vadis – Finanzplatz Schweiz?» unter der Leitung von Rolf Sethe und Christoph B. Bühler statt.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Nichtfinanzielle Berichterstattung nach dem Gegenvorschlag zur Konzernverantwortungsinitiative und ihre Bedeutung für den Finanzsektor

The financial market and its players play a key role in the pursuit of a sustainable economic system. If capital flows are specifically directed toward sustainable products and services, financial market participants can make a significant contribution to a resource-efficient economy. A key prerequisite for the regulatory control of the achievement of sustainability goals is the reporting of…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2020 bis ins vierte Quartal 2021

Nachhaltige Finanzanlagen erfreuen sich stark steigender Nachfrage.¹ Wo viel Business ist, ist der Missbrauch oftmals nicht weit. Angesichts der derzeitigen hohen Intransparenz, ob und inwiefern einzelne Finanzanlagen gewisse Nachhaltigkeitskriterien erfüllen, hat der Finanzminister schon öffentlich gewarnt: «Die Gefahr von Greenwashing ist gross.»² Dementsprechend besteht seitens der…

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…

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…

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…

Angemessenheits- und Eignungsprüfung nach FIDLEG

On 1 January 2020 the Financial Services Act (FinSA) entered into force. Depending on the service offered the new supervisory law obliges investment advisors and portfolio managers to conduct an appropriateness test or a suitability test. This article evaluates the new regime and compares it with the relevant contractual duties and the provisions of the European supervisory law.

«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…

Die Praxis des Jahres 2019 im Übernahmerecht

Im Jahr 2019 erliess die Übernahmekommission (UEK) in 16 Verfahren total 23 Verfügungen. Von diesen Verfahren bezogen sich sechs auf öffentliche Übernahmeangebote. Mit einem Transaktionswert von rund CHF 4,432 Mia. stellte dabei die Übernahme der Schweizer Transport- und Logistikdienstleisterin Pan­alpina Welttransport (Holding) AG durch ihre dänische Konkurrentin DSV A/S das gemessen am…

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…

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…

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…

Grenzüberschreitendes Angebot von Finanzdienstleistungen und -produkten? Die Eidgenossenschaft schlägt zurück

Until recently, Switzerland applied a strict territorial approach to regulating financial services with a handful of a notable exceptions. After facing protectionist movements from other…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2018 bis ins vierte Quartal 2019

Die «Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht (FINMA)»¹ wurde auf den 1. Januar 2009 aus der Taufe gehoben² bei widrigen Umständen. Die Grossbank UBS war in Schieflage und einer ihrer ehemaligen Top-Manager Präsident der FINMA. Die neue Behörde war zunächst bloss formell neu, weil sie aus drei Vorgängerbehörden geformt wurde: Eidgenössische Bankenkommission (EBK), Bundesamt für Privatversicherungen …

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…

Betrugsversuche im Zahlungsverkehr im digitalen Zeitalter

Money transfers have always been the target of fraudsters. For decades Swiss banks limited liability in their contracts with clients to intent and gross negligence. The Federal Supreme Court, however, often denied applying this broad liability exclusion. Today, banks usually commit themselves to verify the identification of the client with customary due diligence but also request from the client…

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…

Dienstleisterketten beim Erbringen von Finanzdienstleistungen: ­Aufsichtsrechtliche Erfassung durch das FIDLEG und vertragsrechtliche ­Haftung der Depotbank

On June 15, 2018 the Parliament passed the new Financial Services Act (FinSA) which presumably will enter into force by the beginning of 2020. The FinSA states new regulatory conduct rules that will apply to financial services providers vis-à-vis their clients. In cases where several financial services providers are involved in the provision of a financial service, the question arises of who has…

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…

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 …

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…

Das Finanzmarktauf­sichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2017 bis ins vierte Quartal 2018

Seit die Marktteilnehmer aus regulatorischen Gründen oder eigenem Antrieb vermehrt mit regulierten Gegenparteien zusammenarbeiten wollen, gelten finanzmarktaufsichtsrechtliche Bewilligungspflichten nicht nur als Bürde, sondern auch als «Würde». Als schwerer Eingriff in die verfassungsmässig geschützte Wirtschaftsfreiheit bedürfen Bewilligungspflichten einer Grundlage in einem formellen Gesetz.

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…

Verwendung von Software aus dem Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz bei der Due Diligence im M&A- und Kapitalmarktbereich

This article is a first review of how artificial intelligence could be used in M&A and capital markets due dili­gence. Today available products have similar fields of application and functionality. They are mainly used in contract review. Their core function is to help to identify clauses of a certain type and to provide first summaries of contracts. They all have the ability to learn and thereby…

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 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…

Europareport

Am 16. März 2017 hat die Europäische Kommission bekannt gegeben, dass sie ein neues Tool gestartet hat, das es Einzelpersonen ermöglichen soll, ihr anonyme Hinweise und Informationen auf Verstösse gegen das EU-Wettbewerbsrecht zu geben.

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 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…

Das Finanzmarktaufsichtsrecht vom vierten Quartal 2015 bis ins vierte Quartal 2016

Die «Too-big-to-fail» (TBTF)-Bestimmungen des Bankengesetzes sind seit dem 1. März 2012 in Kraft. Mit Art. 52 BankG hat der Gesetzgeber sichergestellt, dass kontinuierlich ein waches Auge auf die Regulierung systemrelevanter Institute fällt. Da die beiden Grossbanken im Vergleich zum Schweizer Bruttoinlandprodukt deutlich grösser sind als die zwei grössten Banken in anderen Ländern¹ und…

Europareport

Mit Urteil vom 21. Juli 2016 hatte der Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union (nachfolgend: «Gerichtshof» oder «EuGH») Gelegenheit, Fragen zur Haftung eines Unternehmens für das Fehlverhalten eines Dienstleisters im Rahmen des EU-Kartellverbots zu klären. Der Gerichtshof urteilte, dass einem Unternehmen das Fehlverhalten eines selbständigen Dienstleisters grundsätzlich nicht zurechenbar sei; etwas…

Business Judgment Rule und Rechtsrisiken

Legal risks are currently the most dangerous threat for global corporations. This article analyses the question whether the Swiss Business Judgment Rule (BJR) may also provide a “safe harbour” for decisions based on legal uncertainties. This may look surprising, since corporations are bound to comply with the legal environment in which they are operating, therefore illegal behaviour should not be…

Wer zahlt, wenn wir bezahlen?

Where payments are made via credit card, retailers are charged with a merchant fee. This fee covers, among others, the interchange fee that the acquirer has to pay to the issuer of the credit card each time the card is used. The following article deals with legal questions that arise relating to interchange fees. In particular, it analyzes the contractual framework between issuer, acquirer,…

Europareport

In vier am 10. März 2016 verkündeten Urteilen hat sich der Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union (nachfolgend auch: «EuGH») mit den – durch EU-Regelungen nur in den Grundzügen geregelten – Anforde­rungen an Auskunftsbegehren der Europäischen Kommission (nachfolgend auch: «Kommission») in Kartellverfahren befasst. Die in jenen Verfahren streitrelevanten Auskunftsverlangen, die an vier…

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…

Proxy Advisors – Fluch oder Segen in der Corporate Governance?

The role of proxy advisors in the governance of listed companies has triggered criticism ranging from “box ticking” to “empty voting” and has sparked an intense debate on how to address these concerns. The author takes the view that – for the time being – proxy advisors are not a topic for the regulator. Many institutional investors owe their beneficiaries a fiduciary duty based on which they are…