Dossier on Sustainable Finance

FINMA’s mandate includes protecting financial market clients, as well as safeguarding the proper functioning of the financial markets. In the arena of sustainability, FINMA therefore focuses on climate-related and other nature-related financial risks affecting supervised institutions, as well as combating greenwashing practices. Beyond this, FINMA has no mandate to promote sustainable investments or to actively steer financial flows.

FINMA’s mandate includes protecting financial market clients and investors from improper business conduct, in particular from deception. FINMA’s primary objective in relation to greenwashing is to ensure that clients and investors are not misled.

The effects of climate change and other changes in nature can give rise to significant financial risks for financial institutions. The primary focus is on physical risks, which arise directly from these changes, as well as on transition risks associated with mitigation and adaptation measures. Financial institutions must identify and adequately manage their material climate-related and other nature-related financial risks.

FINMA has defined its key supervisory priorities for addressing climate and nature risks, as well as for combating greenwashing for 2026 to 2028. Overall, it is building on FINMA’s existing practice and developing it further in selected areas.

FINMA ensures that financial institutions adequately identify and manage their material nature-related financial risks, including climate-related financial risks. Since 2026, the supervisory expectations set out in the “Nature-related financial risks” circular have applied. At the same time, FINMA develops the necessary instruments for the appropriate integration of these risks into ongoing supervisory activities and continuously updates them.

Since 2025, the CO₂ Act requires FINMA to regularly review the climate-related financial risks for supervised institutions and to report on them. To fulfil the reporting obligation, FINMA has published an annual climate risk report since 2025. 

Transparency about climate-related financial risks at supervised institutions is an important step towards the rational identification, measurement and management of these risks. At the end of May 2021, FINMA therefore clarified the disclosure requirements in the area of climate-related financial risks for significant financial institutions and communicated them in disclosure circulars.

Key international standard-setting bodies ensure consistent standards for addressing climate-related and other nature-related risks in the financial sector and for investor protection in the area of sustainability. FINMA welcomes the development of internationally coordinated solutions and is actively involved in this work.