The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) requests the Federal Council to adopt the ordinances on FinSA&FinIA and, together with the laws, to bring them into force on 1 January. The final decision on the texts of the ordinances and their entry into force will be taken by the Federal Council at the beginning of November 2019.
The FDF published an overview of the major changes that are to be made to the current draft ordinances.
The proposed amendments to the Financial Services Ordinance FinSO relate, among other things, to the definition of financial services, the financial service provider’s duty to inform its customers and the waiver of the registration obligation of a foreign advisor of professional or institutional clients, provided that the client advisor’s financial institution is prudentially supervised abroad. Furthermore, transitional periods for the implementation of essential FinSA rules of conduct are to be increased to two years.
In the Financial Institutions Ordinance FinIO, the concept of asset management for persons with economic or family ties (“family offices”) who do not require a licence is to be clarified and the criteria for determining the commercial or professional capacity of asset managers and trustees are to be more precisely defined. The thresholds applicable to asset managers above which an independent senior management body and an independent risk management function are required shall be raised; this will reduce the license requirements for asset managers.
Here you’ll find an overview of the material changes proposed by the FDF to the draft ordinances.