Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority
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(German) Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht (French) Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers (Italian) Autorità federale di vigilanza sui mercati finanziari (Romansh) Autoritad federala per la surveglianza dals martgads da finanzas |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 2007 |
| Superseding agency |
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| Jurisdiction | Switzerland |
| Headquarters |
 Bern, Switzerland
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| Employees | 480 |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Federal Department of Finance |
| Website | www.finma.ch |
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the Swiss government body responsible for financial regulation. This includes the supervision of banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers, as well as other financial intermediaries in Switzerland.
FINMA is an independent institution with its own legal personality based in Bern. It is institutionally, functionally and financially independent from the central federal administration and the Federal Department of Finance and reports directly to the Swiss parliament.
FINMA is called German: Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht, French: Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers, Italian: Autorità federale di vigilanza sui mercati finanziari. Its main name and its acronym are expressed in English so as to avoid the semblance of favouring any one of Switzerland's linguistic regions.
Anne Héritier Lachat was Chairwoman of the Board of Directors from 2011 until January 1, 2016 when Thomas Bauer, former Ernst & Young partner became Chairman.
FINMA was founded on the 22 June 2007 with the passing of the Federal Act on the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMASA). This merged the Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI), the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (in German initials, EBK) and the Anti-Money Laundering Control Authority into one agency that is responsible for all financial regulation in Switzerland.
Banking and financial regulation has a long history in Switzerland and the Swiss Federal Banking Commission was in existence since at least 1934, before it was merged into FINMA.
Switzerland is home to two of the worlds major banks UBS and Credit Suisse and as these are significant to the Swiss economy, FINMA has a special regulatory team dedicated to each of these two institutions.
On February 19, 2009 the U.S. government filed suit against UBS to reveal the names of all 52,000 American customers, alleging that the bank and these customers conspired to defraud the U.S. tax authority IRS of legitimately owed tax revenue. However revealing of customer names was contrary to Swiss law and put UBS in a difficult position. Eventually UBS with the support of FINMA agree to provide the names of 250 to 300 clients through FINMA and pay a U.S. $780 million of fine as settlement. FINMA used a section of the Act provided for situations where a bank is threatened with bankruptcy to allow this to happen. Subsequently, in February 2009 the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland ordered FINMA to stop the transmission to the U.S. tax authorities. However it is believed that data from 250 UBS clients had already been transmitted.
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