Branches of foreign insurance companies

Supervisory law obliges branches of foreign insurance companies to prepare annual financial statements in accordance with Swiss legislation. These statements must be audited by an audit company as per Art. 24 para. 1 let. a of the Financial Market Supervision Act (FINMASA).

According to Art. 25 para. 4 of the Insurance Supervision Act (ISA; SR 961.01) branches of foreign insurance companies must keep their accounts in accordance with Art. 957 ff. of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO).

Foreign insurance companies issue an annual report, financial statements and a supervisory report for their operations in Switzerland relating to the past financial year (as of 31 December) and submit it to FINMA by 30 April. The supervisory report contains supervisory information, which the supervised insurance companies are obliged to submit.

The conditions for preparation and audit of the financial statements of branches of foreign insurance companies are set out in Annex 19 of FINMA Circular 2013/03.