10.07.2024

FinSA: Swiss Financial Services Act

The FinSA (Swiss Financial Services Act), which came into force on 1 January 2020 and has been in force since 1 January 2022, contains regulations on the provision of financial services and trading in financial instruments within Switzerland or from Switzerland and vis-à-vis clients domiciled in Switzerland.

Objectives of the FinSA

The aim of FinSA is to strengthen investor protection and confidence in the financial markets, as well as to secure and expand the competitiveness of the Swiss financial centre.

The realisation of these objectives is achieved by comprehensive requirements for Swiss financial service providers with regard to information and transparency obligations and by harmonisation with international standards.

Contents and requirements of the FinSA

The FinSA regulates the obligations of financial service providers towards their clients through investor protection and rules of conduct, the prospectus requirment for financial products and monitoring by the supervisory authorities.

The contents in detail:

 1. investor protection

• Client segmentation: application of different protection measures for private clients, professional clients and institutional clients
• Duty to inform: Comprehensive information for clients about the financial instruments and services offered and their risks
• Appropriateness and suitability test: Examination of the financial services and products offered with regard to their appropriateness and suitability for clients

 2. rules of conduct

• Duty of care: Consideration of client interests and avoidance of conflicts of interest
• Duty of documentation: Documentation of all services provided and customer communication
• Transparency: Clear and understandable presentation of costs and fees for clients

3. obligation to publish a prospectus

• Preparation and approval of prospectuses: Preparation of a prospectus approved by the authorities for public offers of securities and admission to trading on a trading venue
• Key information documents: Preparation of key information documents for complex financial products with easily understandable information for customers

4. product testing

• Product approval process: Review and approval of all financial products before market launch

5. monitoring by supervisory authorities

• Compliance with the FinSA is monitored by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Sanctions such as fines or licence withdrawals can be imposed in the event of violations of the provisions of the FinSA.

FIDLEG-BIB: Basic information sheet

In line with the European PRIIP KID Regulation, all private clients must be provided with a key information document (KID) in addition to personalised investment advice for certain financial instruments (e.g. funds, structured products, exchange-traded futures contracts, options). This KID, which is comparable to the European PRIIP KID, provides a compact overview of the key features, risks and costs of a financial instrument in the form of a standardised document, thereby facilitating transparency and the direct comparison of different instruments.

Scope of application of the FinSA

The FinSA applies to all financial services and financial instruments that are provided to clients domiciled in Switzerland or that are provided from Switzerland to clients domiciled outside Switzerland. The FIDLEG-BIB must be provided to private clients for all advisory and execution services in the context of purchase transactions.

Content Software manages the entire BIB creation process for you, from data calculation, document creation and updating through to publication and archiving, taking into account all the requirements of the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA).

We support you in all matters relating to the BIB and offer you an efficient, flexible and reliable cloud-based SaaS solution.

Get in touch with us.