LSerFi in vigore dal 1° gennaio 2020 | Pubblicazione dell’OSerFi finale
— Testo in inglese —
The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) today announced that FinSA and FinIA will enter into force definitively on 1 January 2020. The Federal Council took note of the outcome of the consultation procedure at its meeting today and adopted the final texts of the Financial Services Ordinance (FinSO), Financial Institutions Ordinance (FinIO) and the Supervisory Organisation Ordinance (SOO).
- Message from the FDF
- Final FinSO (in Italian)
- Explanatory notes (in French)
- Report of results of the consultation (in Italian)
Below we briefly inform you about the most important changes with regard to the obligation to register in the register of advisors, in particular with reference to changes that have occurred since the information provided by the FDF on 9 September 2019.
Extension of transition periods
One of the biggest changes to the draft FinSO concerns the transition periods:
- As announced at the beginning of September, the transitional period of Art. 104 FinSO (Required Knowledge) has been extended from one year to two years. This means that client advisors will not have to prove the required knowledge according to Art. 6 FinSA until the end of 2021. The registration office will therefore have to mark in its advisor register entries of client advisors for whom the corresponding evidence is not yet available (specialist knowledge and/or the specific knowledge concerning FinSA). The required proof will have to be provided by the end of 2021 at the latest.
- Art. 107 FinSO now stipulates that an application for entry in the register of advisors must be submitted no later than 6 months after FINMA has approved a registration office. FINMA approval is not expected before mid-January 2020.
Exemption from the obligation to register (Art. 31 FinSO)
As already announced at the beginning of September 2019, foreign financial service providers will be able to benefit from more far-reaching exceptions with regard to the obligation to be entered in the advisor register. Art. 31 FinSO provides that client advisors of foreign financial services providers subject to prudential supervision are exempt from the registration requirement if they provide their services in Switzerland exclusively to professional and institutional clients. The term “prudential” has not been further specified in the explanatory notes by the FDF on FinSO. However, the exception is far more comprehensive than the previous regulation in the consultation draft.
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Matthias acts as Managing Director at BX Swiss, formerly known as Berne exchange. Before joining BX Swiss, he was head of group innovation management at SIX Group. During his time at both of the Swiss stock exchanges, he launched various new innovative services in the area of financial market infrastructure, ETD & OTC derivatives, structured products, precious metals, funds and bonds.
Matthias acts as Managing Director at BX Swiss, formerly known as Berne exchange. Before joining BX Swiss, he was head of group innovation management at SIX Group. During his time at both of the Swiss stock exchanges, he launched various new innovative services in the area of financial market infrastructure, ETD & OTC derivatives, structured products, precious metals, funds and bonds.
