The Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA) and Financial Institutions Act (FinIA), entered into force on 1st January 2020, laid down an ombudsman affiliation requirement. This requirement requires any financial service provider active in Switzerland to affiliate with an ombudsman’s office recognised by the Federal Finance Department (FDF).
The Swiss Parliament adopted amendment to the FinSA/FinIA to limit the ombudsman affiliation requirement only to those financial service providers involved with any retail clients, including HNWI clients which opted out to be considered professionals. As a consequence, financial service providers providing services to institutional and professional clients only will therefore not be required to ombudsman affiliation.
In this respect, FINMA has postponed the entry into force of the ombudsman affiliation, initially scheduled on 24 December 2020, until the Federal Council makes his decision – expected mid-December.
FINMA will therefore not enforce this ombudsman affiliation requirement in the period between the 26th of December 2020 until the 31st of January 2021.
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