On 1 January 2020, the Federal Act on Financial Institutions of 15 June 2018 (FinIA) will enter into force together with the Federal Act on Financial Services (FinSA). The FinIA revises the regulatory architecture for financial institutions. Instead of the current sectorial approach, the FinIA proposes to introduce a regulatory pyramid with a light regulatory framework for asset managers and trustees, and an increasingly more stringent regime for managers of collective assets, securities firms – the new denomination for securities dealers – and, at the top, banks, although they will be continue to be governed by the Federal Act on Banks and Saving Banks of 8 November 1934 (Banking Act, SR 952.0) and remain out of scope of the FinIA. Furthermore, the FinIA introduces several new regulatory regimes: it subjects portfolio managers and trustees to prudential supervision and extends the current regime applicable to asset managers of collective investment schemes to asset managers of pension funds. Moreover, it recasts the existing regime applicable to securities dealers under the Federal Act on Stock Exchanges and Securities Dealing of 24 March 1995 (SESTA, SR 954.0) into a slightly modified new regime for securities firms. This article updates the previous versions now that the Federal Council passed the Ordinance on Financial Services of 6 November 2019 (FinSO) and the Ordinance on Financial Institutions of 6 November 2019 (FinSO)

By Rashid Bahar (Reference: CapLaw-2019-57)