The new surveillance system
Starting from January 1st, 2020, the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) and the Financial Services Act (FinSA) have introduced a new regulation concerning the activity of asset managers and trustees, which, in order to practice, will require formal authorisation from FINMA.
Furthermore, they will be subject to the supervision of the supervisory organisations (SOs) with regards to the obligations established by FinIA and FinSA as well as compliance with AMLA rules. The SOs will in turn be authorized by FINMA and subject to its supervision.
Starting from July 6th, 2020, the first authorizations as supervisory bodies have been granted by FINMA to the Geneva-based Surveillance des Instituts Financiers (OSIF) and the Surveillance Financière-based Organization based in Neuchâtel (OSFIN). The screening is still ongoing, and FINMA has communicated the presence of three other candidates whose requests are currently under review.
Which operators requested the authorization
Asset managers and trustees have been subject to the obligation to register with FINMA by June 30th 2020, as they will need to request authorization from FINMA and prove that they are affiliated to an SO by the end of 2022.
As of June 30th, 1934 asset managers and 272 trustees have registered with FINMA, and, among these two categories, 273 have already requested an authorization for the current year. 121 institutes have instead communicated that they will not submit any authorization request, ceasing their activity or merging with other institutes.
SOURCE: www.finma.ch