With the narrow rejection of the Swiss Responsible Business Initiative (RBI), Swiss companies will have the challenge of aligning with stricter, EU-inspired standards in terms of corporate disclosure and sectoral human rights due diligence. In this blog post we explain how you can take the reins and become best in class – and why the current reporting cycle is a good time to start.

Are you struggling to keep up with constant regulatory changes? Would you like to learn about a tool to challenge this regulatory tsunami? If so, please continue reading to discover how PwC’s Regulatory Radar can help you track all regulatory initiatives and remain on the road to success.

Investors and policymakers want greater transparency and comparability regarding climate risks in the banking and insurance sector. If not properly assessed, evaluated and monitored, climate risks are the new drivers of value decrease.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (“FINMA”) has adopted its regulation implementing FINSA and FINIA. This encompasses a new implementing ordinance to FINIA, as well as changes to FINMA ordinances and circulars that need to be adjusted as a result of the implementation of FINSA and FINIA.

The EU is stepping up its rules to make CCPs safer and address systemic risk that could arise from their potential failure.

On 10 September 2020, the second chamber of the parliament adopted an amending act to further improve Switzerland’s framework conditions for distributed ledger technology (DLT)/blockchain companies.

FINMA has authorised two supervisory organisations responsible for the future supervision of portfolio managers and trustees.

As of 24 June 2020 the FINSA client advisor registry and ombudsman have been licensed. To get a certificate of knowledge and know-how, the FINSA Client Advisor Test is the only recognised online certificate that shows sufficient proof for it.

The parliament already passed the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) in summer 2018. As planned, at its meeting of 6 November 2019 the Federal Council put FinSA and FinIA, together with the final ordinances into force with effect from 1 January 2020.

In April this year, the European Parliament voted to adopt a new directive and a new regulation with regard to cross-border distribution of alternative investment funds (“AIFs”) and undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities (“UCITS”). The regulatory package has now been finalised and published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

After almost a ten year delay, the U.S. Senate has finally approved the protocol (the 2009 Protocol) to amend the double tax treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the United States of America.

The European Parliament and EU Council have recently agreed to a game-changing piece of legislation that will help protect persons reporting incidents (“whistleblowers”) across Europe. It is the first time that the EU will have a dedicated legislation in this area.