Federal Council acknowledges FINMA and its supervisory and regulatory activities

Bern, 18.12.2014 - During its meeting yesterday, the Federal Council adopted its report on the examination of the regulatory and supervisory activities of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), thereby satisfying various parliamentary initiatives.

In its report, the Federal Council concluded that there is fundamentally no need for action to be taken in institutional terms at FINMA. It noted that FINMA's legal form, management structure, organisation and financial resources, together with the division of responsibilities in relation to other authorities are appropriate. In addition, it saw no need for action to be taken regarding the tasks assigned to FINMA. In contrast, it identified isolated areas with respect to FINMA's supervisory instruments, supervisory concept and personnel resources where there is room for improvement. It recommended in particular that FINMA should increasingly assume its own supervisory activities. Furthermore, FINMA should critically assess the costs and benefits of the high staff turnover and take appropriate measures to combat this.

The examination of FINMA's regulatory activities revealed that FINMA complies with the regulatory principles. It conducts its regulatory activities proportionately, takes appropriate account of the different business activities and risks of the supervised parties and also takes account of the effect its regulation has on competition, the capacity for innovation and the international competitiveness of Switzerland's financial centre. Moreover, those affected can become appropriately involved in the regulatory process at the latest within the scope of the hearing and often even earlier. The concern occasionally voiced by the sector that ordinances and circulars issued by FINMA are not covered by the overarching provisions in the laws or ordinances was only sporadically confirmed. In this regard, the Federal Council recommended that FINMA use appropriate measures to ensure that FINMA ordinances and circulars have a sufficient legal basis in the overarching laws or ordinances.

Regarding the communication instruments used within the scope of FINMA's supervisory activities, no systematic misconduct on the part of FINMA was detected. However, the examination did reveal that individual communication instruments had content of a legislative nature. This mainly concerns notifications. The Federal Council thus recommended that FINMA use these instruments sparingly and solely for communication purposes. It welcomed the fact that FINMA explains its corresponding instruments in its recently published communication policies. In this way, the continuing uncertainty in the sector with regard to the different instruments used by FINMA and their legal effect will be counteracted. The task now is to implement these policies consistently and to this end to define and adhere to internal processes. Moreover, policies must be examined periodically and adapted as the case may be and with the involvement of market participants where possible.

Address for enquiries

Roland Meier, Media Spokesperson FDF
+41 58 462 60 86, roland.meier@gs-efd.admin.ch