FINMA & Financial Licensing

FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, decides who may carry on a regulated financial activity in Switzerland and under what conditions. Two routes account for most projects. A prudential licence (a bank, a securities firm, a fund management company, or a portfolio-manager or trustee licence under the Financial Institutions Act, FinIA) is granted and supervised by FINMA itself. An anti-money-laundering affiliation with a recognised self-regulatory organisation is the lighter route for intermediaries that handle client money without crossing the prudential threshold.

Which gate applies turns on what the business does, not what it is called, and getting that wrong is the most expensive mistake in Swiss financial licensing. The guides here work through the licence categories, the authorisation process and its timeline, and the point where the SRO route ends and a FINMA licence begins. Financial regulation has been the Firm's core focus since 2014.