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 option for capital markets-facing alternative risk transfer. In future, the launch of the SPV might come to be seen as a first step on a journey which sees Switzerland establish an additional hub for insurance-linked securities (ILS). Several other elements would need to fall into place for Switzerland to compete with established markets, but as in life, so in (re-)insurance: never say never.

By Fabian Meier / Matthias Wühler (Reference: CapLaw-2024-35)

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 authors’ previous article on risk-absorbing capital instruments, which was published in CapLaw 3/2022 based on an earlier draft of the revised Ordinance on the Supervision of Private Insurance Undertakings. 

By Hansjürg Appenzeller / Vanessa Isler (Reference: CapLaw-2023-57)

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 Hansjürg Appenzeller / Vanessa Isler (Reference: CapLaw-2022-34)

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 the Insurance Supervision Act aims to enhance the competitiveness of the Swiss insurance sector and to further innovative business models. To overcome this conflict of objectives, the authors argue for a narrow interpretation of the prohibition on the conduct of non-insurance business and outline ways for insurers to operate non-insurance business.

By Hansjürg Appenzeller / Kevin M. Hubacher (Reference: CapLaw-2021-31)

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* (Reference: CapLaw-2021-01)

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: CapLaw-2021-02)

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 bring them in line with international standards and rectify perceived inadequacies in the current regulations. It will also introduce completely new provisions to regulate the restructuring of (re)insurance companies, an explicit statutory basis for the Swiss Solvency Test (SST), product governance and conduct-of-business regulations for specific investment products and, last but not least, a system of differentiated supervisory intensity to better reflect the specificities of the retail/wholesale and professional insurance markets.

By Petra Ginter¹ (Reference: CapLaw-2019-12)

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 the EU’s Solvency II Directive of 5 June 2015. In addition to these required amendments, FINMA had the intention to streamline and simplify some aspects of existing regulations and thus consolidated a number of FINMA circulars. Finally, this article points out a few other recent or ongoing revisions that are relevant for the (re-)insurance industry.

By Petra Ginter (Reference: CapLaw-2017-25)