After a long wait in the Committee on Economic Affairs and Taxation, the Council of States, the upper chamber of the Swiss parliament, approved in its 2016 winter session the bill for a Federal Act on Financial Institutions (FinIA) as well as amendments of other statutes, such as the Federal Act on Banks and Saving Banks of 8 November 1934 and the Federal Act on the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority of 22 June 2007. This approval allows this bill to move forward to the National Council, the lower chamber of the Swiss parliament.

Overall, the bill on the FinIA and its schedules, as approved by the Council of States, remains close to the draft bill presented by the Federal Council (see CapLaw-2016-7). Most changes seek to clarify the project rather than challenge fundamentally the initial proposal. Two exceptions deserve, however, further attention: first, the Council of States refused to create a framework for a new supervisory authority solely responsible for supervising portfolio managers. Instead, it opted to draw a line between day-to-day supervision, which is due to be entrusted to a new supervisory authority, who in turn can rely on the work of audit firms or carry out their own reviews, and more supervisory actions such as licensing and enforcement action, which will remain with FINMA.

By Rashid Bahar (Reference: CapLaw-2017-06)