Dossier on effective and efficient financial market supervision

FINMA is a lean and efficient organisation that takes a risk-oriented approach and applies proportionality to its supervision. It hardly grew at all from 2012 to 2022. Its growth since 2023 is due to being assigned new responsibilities, the emergence of new topics and new methods, and increasing risks. However, employee numbers at FINMA (FTE in permanent employment) will remain in three figures.

As a regulatory body that is entrusted with oversight of the financial market, FINMA needs a high degree of independence in order to achieve the best outcome for society. Just as a strong, independent central bank ensures low inflation and sustainable growth, a strong and independent supervisory authority reduces the risk and scale of crises in the banking and financial system and therefore serves as the basis for sustainable growth and competitiveness. Studies clearly show: the more independent the supervisory authority, the more stable the financial system.

However, independence certainly does not mean that FINMA should carry out its duties free from supervision and accountability, quite the contrary. Accountability to Parliament is of central importance. In addition, there is also regular communication with the Federal Council as a whole, its finance committee, the Head of the Federal Department of Finance, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO), the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) and the General Secretariat of the Federal Department of Finance (FDF).