Authorisation – gaining entry to the financial market
Any individual or company seeking to manage clients’ money or take money from investors, underwrite insurance policies, or set up and manage a collective investment scheme requires authorisation from FINMA. Only where statutory requirements have been met are licences issued.
Authorised companies are then supervised. FINMA supervision varies in intensity. Depending on the legal provisions, it can range from intensive, ongoing supervision to a simple act of registration, after which FINMA will only step in if it receives reports of inappropriate conduct. Under certain circumstances, service providers must join a private self-regulatory organisation instead.
Search
To check whether an individual, a company or a financial product has been authorised, you can search for the name here.
Lists
FINMA keeps lists of all authorised institutions and investment funds. These are regularly updated. A supervised institution may have been authorised but not yet be included in the list. Similarly, a supervised institution may still feature on the list even though it has lost its authorisation.
Authorised banks and securities firms
Licensed persons pursuant to Article 1b BA (FinTech licence)
Insurers
Asset management
Stock exchange and financial market infrastructures
Portfolio managers and trustees
Supervisory organisations
Money laundering
The legislator cancelled the status of directly subordinated financial intermediaries (DSFI) with effect from 31 December 2019. These financial intermediaries will no longer be subject to supervision by FINMA from 1 January 2020 (further information on the transitional provisions).
Central mortgage bond institutions subject to the Mortgage Bond Act (MBA)
Auditors
For authorised audit firms, please use the register provided on the website of the Federal Audit Oversight Authority (FAOA).
Rating agencies
Reviewing body for prospectuses
Registration body
Client advisers of Swiss financial service providers which are not subject to prudential supervision in Switzerland must sign up to an adviser register to carry out their activities. The registration body manages the adviser register and decides which client advisers to add to and delete from the register.
Insurance intermediaries
Insurance intermediaries are brokers who offer insurance contracts, for example on behalf of insurance companies. Insurance intermediaries are not supervised by FINMA, but they can have their names entered in a register kept by FINMA. Independent insurance intermediaries must be on this register. Intermediaries who are tied to an insurance company have the right to be entered.
Business identification numbers for authorised companies
In addition to the above list, FINMA provides the available business identification numbers (UID) for authorised companies as a service.
Contact
In you are in any doubt, contact the following address to find out whether a service provider has been authorised to operate:
Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA
Laupenstrasse 27
CH – 3003 Bern
Hotline: +41 31 327 98 88
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. – 12 noon
Email: questions@finma.ch
