On 26 March 2019, the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) published its guidelines for the secure use of cloud services in banking. The SBA asserts that cloud banking provides numerous advantages to its users, such as a high innovation potential due to the use of artificial intelligence, but also an opportunity to save costs, which benefits smaller banks in particular. However, legal and regulatory uncertainties have so far prevented Swiss banks from unlocking this potential.

The legislative landscape regarding DAC6 is developing across E.U. Member States as national governments move to introduce relevant laws before the 31 December 2019 deadline.
The amendment to Directive 2011/16/EU on mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements (DAC6 for short) will have far-reaching consequences for tax advisors, service providers and taxpayers.

During its meeting on 22 March 2019, the Federal Council initiated the consultation on the adaptation of federal law to developments in distributed ledger technology (DLT) which will last until 28 June 2019.

Am 15. Februar 2019 hat der Rat der Europäischen Union eine Einigung über ein Packet von überbearbeiteten Vorschriften zur Risikominderung im europäischen Bankensektor gebilligt. Damit wird endlich Klarheit geschaffen, welche aufsichtsrechtlichen Herausforderungen und Themen die regulatorische Agenda in den kommenden Jahren dominieren werden.

The Swiss Federal Council’s plan to improve the attractiveness of Switzerland as a financial centre for the fund industry is beginning to take shape. The idea is to introduce a Swiss fund type for institutional investors that does not require authorisation by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.

The changes introduced by the new regulatory framework for the Swiss financial markets impact trade assayers. They will be supervised by new institutions and will need to introduce organisational measures, and some will need to apply for authorisation with FINMA. This paper gives an overview on how trade assayers are embedded in the new regulatory framework and how to cope with the upcoming duties.

On March 8th, 2019, the Federal Council has initiated the consultation on a partial revision of the Banking Act. The revision envisages amendments in the areas of bank restructuring, deposit insurance and segregation of intermediated securities.

FINMA provisionally recognises the UK provisions on clearing, reporting, and risk mitigation as equivalent to the Swiss ones. This is the first step towards enabling market participants to comply with the Swiss derivatives regulation by fulfilling the corresponding UK obligations.

Under the Financial Services Act (FinSA), client advisors must know the FinSA Code of Conduct and display the ability to perform competently. To ensure that this is the case, PwC has devised a test that has become the new benchmark for financial service providers.

Similar to other European countries, Switzerland has amended its immigration law to stipulate legally binding integration requirements for foreign nationals and to facilitate access to the Swiss labour market for recognised refugees and provisionally admitted persons.

Several countries have developed or introduced gender pay legislations. This leads to the question whether this increase will reduced gender related pay differences. Is there any evidence of the impact?

The Swiss Parliament agreed last December on details for a revision of the equal pay regulation. This revised law is subject to referendum after which the Federal Council will decide on the final date of entry into force. What are the latest revisions and how can your company prepare for this upcoming legislation? Our PwC experts answer these questions.