Page 10 - ASSET MANAGER 9 (EN)

NICOLAS RAMELET
Lawyer, LL.M.,
Managing Director of the VQF Association for Quality Assurance in Financial Services
10 • FIDLEG AND FINIG
EAM IN SWITZERLAND
WHAT CAN YOU TELL BY LOOKING INTO
THE CRYSTAL BALL
Time and again newspapers report that certain animal species are included in the list of protected species due to their declining populations. However, asset management is also regularly mentioned by many media today as a phase-out model and is predicted to come to an end soon.
Author: Nicolas Ramelet, Attorney at Law, LL.M., is Managing Director of the VQF Association for Quality Assurance in Financial Services
However, it appears that the species of asset man- agers, and in particular that of independent asset managers, the UVV, is not considered necessary throughout for the maintenance of a healthy ecosys- tem. In contrast to dwindling animal species in the population, which are protected by agreements and safeguarded in their populations by measures, global politics, and thus also in Switzerland, are increasing- ly tightening the regulations for asset managers.
Importance of the financial market for the whole of Switzerland
The financial market in Switzerland, and as a part of this, asset management, is still central to the Swiss economic ecosystem: statistics recently published by the SIF show that the financial market still accounts for 9.1% of Switzer- land's gross domestic product. This share is only exceed- ed in Luxembourg and Singapore. If one also takes into account which other sectors benefit from the purchasing power of those employed in this segment and what signifi- cance this economic sector thus has directly and indirectly
for prosperity in Switzerland, it only becomes clear how central Switzerland's financial centre is for Switzerland in particular. And although the share of GDP has fallen slightly over the last few years, the custody stocks held in Swit- zerland totaling more than CHF 6,000 billion in 2017 are impressive - especially as they have increased by more than 500 billion since 2016 alone. Of these, even if precise surveys are lacking, approximately CHF 250 to 300 billion are managed by independent asset managers domiciled in Switzerland.
New rules and new supervisory architecture for asset managers
After the AMLA, the industry standards for uVV, FATCA and also the AIA have gradually adapted the sector of inde- pendent asset managers to the changing zeitgeist over the last 20 years, a new era is about to begin with the Finan- cial Services Act (FIDLEG) and the Financial Institutions Act (FINIG): For the first time, independent asset managers are subject to mandatory supervision by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority with a prudential, i.e. holistic, approach. On 15 June, Parliament agreed on the content of FIDLEG and FINIG. This marked the end of a debate that had been foreseeable since the end of the 90s and has been hotly debated since 2014.
The aim is to effectively extend supervision, which has so far focused on system protection and thus the prevention of the circulation of funds of criminal origin or funds with the purpose of financing terrorism. Clients in the financial mar-