Insurance

The revised Swiss Insurance Supervision Act (nISA) has introduced a new category of license: the Insurance Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) (Versicherungszweckgesellschaft; Entité ad hoc d’assurance; Società veicolo di assicurazione). Instituted almost a decade after the first Swiss Franc-denominated catastrophe bond issuance, the SPV is a welcome update to the Swiss regulatory regime offering a domestic…

In this article, the authors provide an update on the changes with respect to the future treatment of risk-absorbing capital instruments under the revised Swiss insurance regulations, following the conclusion of the partial revision of the regulatory framework for the supervision of Swiss insurance undertakings earlier this year. This article serves as an update to…

The regulatory framework for the supervision of Swiss insurance undertakings is currently undergoing a partial revision, which, inter alia, will bring changes regarding risk-absorbing capital instruments. This article provides an overview over the capital requirements of Swiss insurers and sets out the treatment of risk-absorbing capital instruments under both the current and future regulations. By…

Swiss (re)insurers are generally prohibited from conducting business not directly linked to the insurance business. The dispatch of the Swiss Federal Council on the partial revision of the Insurance Supervision Act states that the current prohibition of insurance companies to conduct non-insurance business will remain in place. At the same time, the partial revision of…

On 21 October 2020, the Swiss Federal Council published the draft of the revised Insurance Supervision Act together with a dispatch to Swiss Parliament. The revised act is expected to enter into force by 2022 at the earliest. This article provides an overview and discusses selected key topics of the revision. By Peter Ch. Hsu*…

One of the key goals of the proposed revision of the Swiss Insurance Supervision Act is to insert provisions on restructuring into the Swiss insurance regulations that so far do not exist. Together with some related amendments, these provisions are designed to form a regulatory regime for financially distressed insurance undertakings.  By Monica Mächler (Reference:…

From mid November 2018 until 28 February 2019, the Swiss Federal Council held consultations on a partial revision of the Insurance Supervision Act (ISA). Subject to completion of the legislative process and the referendum period, the revisions will likely enter into force around 2022. The proposed bill will update existing provisions in the ISA to…

This article aims to provide an overview of the amendments in FINMA regulations for (re-)insurers between 2015 and 2016. The amendments followed the entering into force of the revised Swiss Insurance Supervision Ordinance (ISO) on 1 July 2015 which was instrumental to secure the European Commission’s recognition of the Swiss insurance supervision system’s equivalence with…