Regulation – Independent asset managers at the outset of major legislative and regulatory changes

BSL Banking in Switzerland and Liechtenstein – September 2013
Frédérique Bensahel, Pierre-Olivier Etique

The independent asset manager’s profession currently benefits from a “soft” legal framework. Independent asset managers may offer asset management services provided they comply with the anti-money laundering act (AMLA) and when offering investment funds’ units within the framework of an investment management agreement – with the rules of conduct of the self-regulatory organisations they are affiliated to. This situation, which constitutes a “Swiss exception”, is doomed to disappear.