Agreements with foreign supervisory authorities

The increasingly international nature of the financial services industry brings with it growing requirements in terms of cooperation and the exchange of information between supervisory authorities. In order to facilitate cooperation, FINMA concludes agreements with foreign supervisory authorities. The scope of the MMoUs which FINMA has joined does not accord priority to the conclusion of bilateral agreements.

The agreements are focused on supervisory authorities in countries with whom there is an extensive exchange of information due to the large number of cross-border branch offices of supervised institutions. These MoUs specify cooperation and procedures within the statutory framework (Art. 42 and 43 FINMASA, Art. 23septies BA, Art. 38 and 38a SESTA, Art. 143 CISA).

FINMA is also legally authorised to cooperate with a foreign supervisory authority even in the absence of a specific agreement between the two. If the cooperation involves the exchange of confidential data, FINMA generally requires an ad hoc declaration from the requesting supervisory authority stipulating that the information may only be used for the direct supervision of the regulated institutions, that the supervisory authority is bound by official or professional confidentiality provisions, and that the information may not be published or passed on to other authorities and bodies, including other supervisory or criminal prosecution authorities, without the prior consent of FINMA.

FINMA currently has formal cooperation agreements with the following foreign supervisory authorities.

Memorandum of Understanding with all EU member states 

Simplified cooperation with foreign authorities is extremely important in connection with the supervision of insurance groups and financial conglomerates. Groups and financial conglomerates rarely operate in a single country, meaning that the responsible supervisory authorities in the countries concerned need to work very closely together. A uniform MoU has been concluded with all EU member states to simplify the general exchange of information in the insurance sector.

Reciprocity list (Art. 79e SVG)

List of states which grant Switzerland reciprocal rights in the meaning of Article 79e of the Road Traffic Act of 19 December 1958 (SVG; SR 741.01).

Until now only the Principality of Liechtenstein has granted reciprocal rights.