Suchergebnisse für ausländische Finanzinstitute

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…

Eigentümerstrukturen von Schweizer Aktiengesellschaften

The ownership structure of a corporation is in many respects a crucial determinant from a corporate governance perspective. In finance and business economics, a large variety of theoretical and empirical work has focused on corporate ownership structures and their implications. In the legal field, however, the topic has been rather neglected so far. This article provides an empirical study of…

Grenzen der Mitwirkungspflicht von Banken im Verfahren der internationalen Steueramtshilfe

The appetite of foreign authorities for tax data is steadily growing. The requests for administrative assistance related to bank clients are no longer limited to the usual account documents. Rather, a trend became apparent that the requesting states require the banks to specially process such data. Against this background, it is important to determine the limits of duty of banks and other…

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…

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,…

Die schleichende Erodierung des Bankkundengeheimnisses

This article shows how Swiss banking secrecy, which was primarily intended to protect privacy and was enshrined in law in response to the banking crisis of 1931, has been gradually eroded under increasing international pressure and adapted to international standards. In stark contrast to this, it continues to be valid at home. However, the existing legal obligations to inform and report to the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Zum Anbieten kollektiver Kapitalanlagen unter dem FIDLEG – und ausgewählte Aspekte der dabei einzuhaltenden Verhaltenspflichten

The regulatory framework for the distribution of collective investment schemes (CIS) in (and from) Switzerland is currently set forth in one single act, the Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA). The CISA sets out the product level requirements for CIS distributed in or from Switzerland, the requirements for persons distributing CIS, and the point of sale duties of such persons. As part of the…

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 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…

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…

Risiken bei systemrelevanten Institutionen: wirtschaftspolitische Analyse am Beispiel der Schweiz

The financial crisis has demonstrated the enormous economic costs of the failure of systemically relevant financial institutions. The size and interconnectedness of such institutions creates external effects and the fact that governments are de facto forced to prevent their bankruptcy creates moral hazard. In both cases econo­mic theory clearly suggest that the regulatory framework should aim at…

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…

Internationale Standards in der schweizerischen Finanzmarktaufsicht

This article illustrates that a general commitment to internationally agreed standards in financial market regulation is in Switzerland’s best interest. It allows Switzerland to participate and shape decisions in standard-setting fora, thus fostering global financial stability and ensuring a level playing field for all players. Compliance with key standards is also a precondition for defending…

Ergänzung des ISDA-Rahmenvertrages um ein Protokoll zur Vermeidung möglicher Destabilisierungen des Finanzsystems

The ISDA Master Agreement is the global standard for over-the-counter derivatives. Notably, it provides for an early termination which may be triggered when resolution authorities take actions for the purpose of stabilizing or restructuring a failing institution. The early termination of such agreements could compromise or prevent a successful and orderly resolution of the failing institution. In…