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Following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020 and the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (“FMPA”) between Switzerland and the EU no longer applies to UK nationals. This means that since 1 January 2021 UK nationals have the status of third-country citizens (non-EU/EFTA citizens) and as a result, UK nationals who wish to live and to take up employment in Switzerland are subject to the stricter admission requirements under the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (“FNIA”).

With the Brexit transition period having ended on 31 December 2020, the United Kingdom’s powers to grant equivalence to foreign stock markets came into force. As a result, the United Kingdom has approved a regulation which recognises Switzerland’s legal and supervisory framework for stock exchanges as equivalent. The regulation will come into effect on 3 February 2021.

The 2007 Lugano Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters governs the jurisdiction and reciprocal enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters between the member states of the European Union (EU) and three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). The Lugano Convention is in essence the equivalent of the 2001 Brussels I Regulation which applies between EU member states only.

New requirement for fund managers and other financial services providers: If you are a financial services provider under the Swiss Financial Services Act, even if you are only active on a cross-border basis, you must join an ombudsman office prior to 24 December 2020. This requirement also applies if you are marketing funds to Swiss investors on a cross-border basis.

On 16 April 2020, the Federal Council passed a special ordinance in relation to the Swiss insolvency and restructuring regime to protect companies who ran into financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (the COVID-19 Insolvency Ordinance). The COVID-19 Insolvency Ordinance entered into force on 20 April 2020 and will remain effective for a period of six months.

In this blog, we summarise some of the new requirements to which Swiss and foreign financial services providers will be subject under the new Financial Services Act (FinSA, FIDLEG (German) and LSFin (French)) which enters into force on 1 January 2020.

The Federal Department of Finance issued a statement yesterday clarifying certain issues regarding the new draft ordinances to the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA).   

In this blog, which is part of a series of briefings on the new Financial Services Act (FinSA, FIDLEG (German) and LSFin (French)) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA, FINIG (German) and LEFin (French)) that will come into force in 2020, we will look at certain changes which the new regulatory regime will bring to the cross-border offering of collective investment schemes into Switzerland.

The 2007 Lugano Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters currently forms the basis for the reciprocal enforcement of judgments between the member states of the European Union and three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (Switzerland, Norway and Iceland). The Lugano Convention is in essence the equivalent of the Brussels I Regulation of 2001.

In this first blog of a series of several briefings to be posted on the new Financial Services Act and Financial Institutions Act we will look at some of the proposals and their effect in particular for the foreign fund and investment management industry.

It has been two years since the transitional period of the amended Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act ended and the market practice established over the past two years has very much taken shape.

The rapid evolution in FinTech has not only attracted the attention of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) but eventually pushed the Swiss government to propose FinTech specific amendments to the Banking Act and other financial laws. On 1 February 2017 the Federal Council opened a consultation on new draft regulations designed to reduce barriers to entry for FinTech firms and to strengthen the attractiveness of the Swiss financial markets.