FINMA adopts new regulation implementing FinSA and FinIA

Recently The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA introduced a new regulation act under which is implementing the Financial Services Act FinSA and the Financial Institutions Act FinIA. Additionally, it is also issuing a new FINMA Financial Institutions Ordinance. They are supposed to enter into force on 1 January 2021.

The Russia-Malta double taxation treaty was amended. What's new?

In March 2020, Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, addressed the nation to announce the main measures being taken to tackle coronavirus. As part of that, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to quickly initiate negotiations with foreign jurisdictions to amend Russia’s current DTTs to set the minimum withholding tax rate on dividends and interest paid from Russia at 15%.

 

EHP survey and application platform [Recent Update]

The web-based survey and application platform EHP is now accessible to supervised institutions and their audit firms, as well as supervisory organisations.  They can now leverage the platform to submit encrypted supervisory data and authorisation applications to FINMA online. The use of this website is free of charge.

 

Swiss Asset Management Takes a New Turn in 2020

From January 1, 2020. The Swiss Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) and the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA) entered into force, updating the regulatory regime for trustees working in Switzerland. This means that all independent portfolio managers (PMs) and trustees subject to supervision under FinIA will have to be supervised by a Supervised organisations (SO) authorised by FINMA and get licensed by FINMA before they can be able to carry out their activities as financial intermediaries in Switzerland.

Banking and finance in Switzerland

The Swiss banking sector is key in strengthening the swiss economy. Switzerland is well known for its diversified financial services,  privacy and sophistication. Swiss banks are actively engaged in a range of activities, in relation with both the private and commercial domain. At present, Switzerland is one of the leading countries in private banking.