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)