Securities

Article 53(1) FinSA introduces a pre-review of prospectuses by a reviewing body, while article 53(2) FinSA allows the Federal Council to provide for exemptions. The Federal Council should continue to allow subsequent reviews substantially in the same way as the regulatory board allows provisional trading. The confirmation pursuant to article 53(2) FinSA is addressed to…

Efforts to amend the EU Shareholder Rights Directive have lost momentum. The most recent resolution of an EU institution has been passed more than a year ago by the EU parliament. The Brexit vote in the United Kingdom has cast further doubt on the directive’s future design. Nevertheless, efforts to improve the governance of European…

Many listed companies are seeking “on-demand” capital solutions that are tailor made to their specific needs. These companies often enter into arrangements with an institutional investor, whereby the company has the right to call specified amounts of cash from the investor against issuance or delivery of a certain amount of shares in return. Such arrangements…

On 1 January 2016, revised regulations regarding the disclosure of significant shareholdings in listed Swiss companies or non-Swiss companies with their primary listing in Switzerland entered into effect. In most respects, the new law restated the former regulations. However, the legislation also introduced some significant changes and imposes important new disclosure obligations, in particular upon…

On 12 December 2014, the Swiss Parliament adopted the Federal Act Implementing the Revised Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations of 2012. The Act provides new and revised provisions in the field of anti-money laundering and criminal law which were discussed in CapLaw No. 3/2015 (p. 6 et seqq.). The Act also introduced new reporting obligations of…

Only two years ago the European Union adopted two regulations that serve as the pillars of the European Banking Union. In October 2015, the Commission launched an ambitious plan to establish a European Capital Market Union until 2019. Although both “unions” go in the same direction – an even more integrated and centralized European financial…

While Swiss investment foundations have been used quite often for indirect real estate investments of Swiss pension plans in the past, recently, more market participants have been using the real estate investment foundation as an attractive real estate offering for their eligible clients. In addition to the general regulatory and civil law framework that applies…

On 26 March 2015, Credit Suisse issued USD 4 billion senior unsecured debt that intends to be eligible to meet the Financial Stability Board’s proposal and envisaged future Swiss standards for instruments counting towards a total loss absorbency capacity (TLAC) requirement. By René Bösch/Benjamin Leisinger (Reference: CapLaw-2015-15) 1) Background and Developments a) The Idea In…

Proxy adviser have now come to play an important role for listed companies in Switzerland with a significant free float. The breadth of the phenomenon is relatively recent and coincided with the enactment and entry into force of the Ordinance against Excessive Compensation for listed companies (OaEC; Verordnung gegen übermässige Vergütungen in börsenkotierten Unternehmen (VegüV)),…