Regulation – The Independent Asset Manager profession faced with a changing regulatory environment: state of play and prospects

BSL Banking in Switzerland and Liechtenstein – September 2014
Frédérique Bensahel, Pierre-Olivier Etique

The legislative and regulatory changes affecting the independent asset manager profession are multiplying so rapidly that they make their overall assessment all the more delicate and dangerous since they concern issues as different as

the Anti-Money Laundering Act (“AMLA”), the FINMA’s rules of conduct on asset management or the authorisation regimes under the Collective Investment Schemes Act (“CISA”). In the long term, it seems inevitable that asset managers be subject to prudential supervision whose outlines will be established in the Draft Financial nServices Act, to be published by next summer. However, this paradigm shift is already well under way, as evidenced by the recent legislative and regulatory initiatives mentioned hereunder.