News

FINMA’s 2022 Annual Report published today also includes the annual financial statements. In addition, FINMA is providing data on enforcement cases in a database as well as statistics in an Excel document on its website.

Supervision in the context of the Ukraine war

In 2022, FINMA concentrated on the most important pressure points in its risk-based supervisory activities. These included the consequences of the Ukraine war for the financial centre. In this context, FINMA immediately analysed the loss potential in the overall market as well as the sector-specific risks. During on-site supervisory reviews at a number of banks, it investigated, among other things, whether the banks are organisationally capable of complying with the sanctions provisions and intensified its supervision in this context at more than a dozen banks.

Crypto and artificial intelligence

The market continued to show strong interest in crypto-based financial services and assets in 2022. Alongside specialist FinTech companies, a growing number of banks supervised by FINMA also expanded the range of services they provide in this area. In a survey of supervised institutions, FINMA found that the use of artificial intelligence is also gaining in importance in the financial markets. FINMA set up a new unit during the financial year to properly supervise these developments in financial institutions and published some initial supervisory expectations.

At the same time, 2022 saw huge fluctuations in cryptocurrency values and spectacular failures of several large foreign FinTech companies. FINMA took these events as confirmation of its long-established practice of licensing and supervising products and services on the basis of a technology-neutral, functional approach. The aim is to promote innovation while also ensuring an appropriate degree of protection for customers and the financial markets.

Portfolio managers and trustees: 1,699 applications submitted

Another challenge for FINMA as an authority in the year under review was the end of the three-year transitional period for submitting an application as a portfolio manager or trustee. Of the more than 2,500 portfolio managers and trustees who signalled their intention to obtain authorisation in 2020, 1,699 ultimately submitted an application for authorisation to FINMA by the end of 2022. FINMA also continued to engage in an intensive dialogue with the industry and its associations during 2022.

Enforcement: more investigations and proceedings

In the area of enforcement, FINMA carried out more than 850 (2021: 763) investigations and concluded 39 proceedings (2021: 34) against companies and individuals in the year under review (enforcement statistics). This means that the number of investigations carried out and proceedings concluded increased by more than 10% compared to the previous year.

Annual financial statements: higher costs due to new tasks

New statutory responsibilities and increasing complexity are raising the requirements for supervisory activities and leading to higher costs for FINMA. While FINMA’s operating costs were stable for a long time, they already rose in 2020 and 2021 due to the expenditure associated with the entry into force of the FinIA and FinSA. This trend continued in 2022. At CHF 133 million, they were CHF 7 million higher in 2022 than in the previous year. The total costs were covered by income from supervisory fees and levies (annual financial statements). The number of full-time positions at the authority averaged 539 in 2022 and increased compared to the previous year (519) due to the additional tasks and increased requirements for supervisory activities.

FINMA’s annual media conference

FINMA has postponed its annual media conference due to the current strong focus on the work relating to the merger of UBS and CS. FINMA will announce the new date in good time.

Contact

Tobias Lux, Spokesperson
Phone +41 31 327 91 71
tobias.lux@finma.ch

Vinzenz Mathys, Spokesperson
Phone +41 31 327 19 77
vinzenz.mathys@finma.ch