Under current Swiss law, portfolio managers, which are not acting as asset managers for collective investment schemes, and trustees are not subject to a comprehensive prudential supervision. Portfolio managers and trustees are only required to register with a self-regulatory organization in order to comply with Swiss anti-money laundering laws. Other financial services providers, most notably banks, have criticized this lack of regulatory oversight. Furthermore, the current Swiss regulatory framework for portfolio managers is not in line with international regulatory standards, such as the EU/EEA’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). This situation is about to significantly change under the proposed new Financial Institutions Act (FinIA). This new act will subject the approximately 2,300 portfolio managers to authorization requirements and comprehensive supervision by a FINMA-approved supervisory organization.

By Patrick Schleiffer / Patrick Schärli (Reference: CapLaw-2016-8)