Asset Management and Markets division

The Asset Management and Markets division performs its tasks in the Authorisation of Asset Management, Supervision of Asset Management, Financial Market Infrastructures and Derivatives, Supervision of New Technologies and Legal Expertise organisational units.

Broad range of institutions and products under the Financial Institutions and Collective Investment Schemes Acts

It authorises fund management companies, managers of collective assets, asset managers, trustees, branches and representative offices of foreign financial institutions, custodian banks and representatives of foreign collective investment schemes. In addition, Swiss collective investment schemes such as contractual funds, investment companies with variable capital (SICAVs), investment companies with fixed capital (SICAFs) and limited partnerships for collective investment (LPs) are approved, as are foreign collective investment schemes that are offered to non-qualified investors in Switzerland. The division continuously supervises compliance with the statutory, contractual and regulatory provisions.

Self-regulatory organisations and supervisory organisations

The Asset Management and Markets division is responsible for recognising the SROs which professional financial intermediaries must join. It also authorises and monitors the SOs which supervise independent portfolio managers and trustees.

Financial market infrastructures

The division is also responsible for the financial market infrastructures authorised and supervised by FINMA. Through their services – trading, clearing, settlement and custody of securities – they form the backbone of an efficient and functioning capital market and facilitate the international interconnectedness of capital markets and capital movements. FINMA works together with the Swiss National Bank on supervision in some cases. In the area of foreign financial market infrastructures that are recognised but not directly supervised by FINMA, the Asset Management and Markets division exchanges information with the responsible home authorities.

FinTech

The division is responsible for granting FinTech licences in accordance with the Banking Act and for the licensing of DLT (distributed ledger technology) trading facilities. It supervises the licensed institutions. As FINMA’s FinTech knowledge hub, the division operates the authority’s FinTech desk. In this role, it answers questions from interested parties regarding the application of financial market laws to FinTech business models and supports FINMA’s other divisions in FinTech matters.