Operational management
The Executive Board manages FINMA’s operating business. It ensures that the resolutions of the Board of Directors are implemented. It also prepares the necessary files and materials for decisions to be taken by the Board of Directors.
In particular, the issuing of licenses to financial institutions, decisions on supervisory matters of cross-divisional significance and key management, organisational and personnel issues fall within the remit of the Executive Board.
The Chief Executive Officer heads the Executive Board and its divisional heads and is responsible for ensuring compliance with the budget approved by the Board of Directors. The Deputy is appointed by the Board of Directors at the request of the CEO on a rotating basis.
The authority to initiate and close enforcement proceedings employed by FINMA to assert, where necessary, supervisory law has been delegated by the Executive Board to the Enforcement Committee (ENA). This committee comprises three permanent members: the Chief Executive Officer (Chair), as well as the heads of the Support, Policy and Legal Expertise and Enforcement divisions.
Stefan Walter, CEO
Stefan Walter has been FINMA’s CEO since 1 April 2024. From 2014 to 2024, he was Director General at the European Central Bank (ECB). Prior to this, he held a management position at Ernst & Young, was Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and held management positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Birgit Rutishauser, Deputy CEO, Head of Insurance division
Birgit Rutishauser has been Deputy CEO since 1 June 2019 and Head of the Insurance division and a member of FINMA’s Executive Board since 17 September 2018; from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024 she was CEO ad interim. Birgit Rutishauser had previously held various management positions in the insurance industry, namely at Nationale Suisse and Zurich Switzerland.
Léonard Bôle, Head of Markets division
Léonard Bôle has been a member of the Executive Board since 1 April 2014 and is responsible for the Markets division. From 2009, he worked in leading roles in connection with the combating of money laundering, the supervision of self-regulatory organisations and authorising financial institutions. He was previously employed in the legal department of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission, one of FINMA's predecessor authorities.
Marianne Bourgoz Gorgé, Head of Asset Management division
Marianne Bourgoz Gorgé has been Head of the Asset Management division and a member of FINMA’s Executive Board since 1 September 2022. Previously the mathematician was Group Chief Risk Officer of Banque Cantonale de Genève
Patric Eymann, Head of Enforcement division
Patric Eymann became a member of the Executive Board and Head of the Enforcement division in August 2016. He was previously in charge of the division’s Investigations section. A law graduate, he has worked for FINMA and the Swiss Federal Banking Commission since 1998.
Alain Girard, Head of Recovery and Resolution division
Alain Girard has been Head of the Recovery and Resolution division and a Member of FINMA’s Executive Board since 1 August 2022. Prior to this, the holder of a doctorate in law was Head of Supervision of Small Banks and Securities Firms at FINMA.
Thomas Hirschi, Head of Banks division
Thomas Hirschi has been a member of FINMA’s Executive Board since 1 January 2020 and has led the Banks division since 1 February 2022. From 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024, he was Deputy CEO ad interim. He headed FINMA’s Asset Management division from 2020 to January 2022, while from 2015 to 2019 he was responsible for the supervision of banks and insurance companies licensed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market and before that he held various senior positions at FINMA.
Alexandra Karg, Head of Operations division
Alexandra Karg took over the Operations division on
1 October 2016 when she also became a member of FINMA’s Executive Board. Prior to that, she headed Information Products at the Stuttgart Stock Exchange and was also a member of the management board of SIX Financial Information in Zurich.
Annemarie Nussbaumer, Head of Supervisory Policy and Legal Expertise division
Annemarie Nussbaumer has been a member of the Executive Board with responsibility for the Supervisory Policy and Legal Expertise division since 1 November 2023. Previously Annemarie Nussbaumer was Head of Supervision of Small Banks and Securities Firms, after leading the Authorisation section within the Banks division at FINMA.
