FINMA publishes 2020 Annual Report

FINMA revealed its Annual Report for the yr 2020 at the moment. Moreover the retrospective report, this additionally encompasses the annual monetary statements. As well as, FINMA is offering knowledge on enforcement circumstances in a database in addition to statistics in an Excel doc on its web site. FINMA has postponed the deliberate annual media convention till a later time limit because of the introduced change in management (cf. press launch).

A yr dominated by the coronavirus pandemic

The yr 2020 and FINMA’s actions have been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. The disaster is the primary main take a look at of the regulatory adjustments launched for the reason that 2008 monetary disaster. The upper capital buffers which have been constructed up lately have proved to be extraordinarily efficient in sustaining stability and belief. The regulatory toolkit additionally benefited from its inbuilt flexibility. FINMA was thus in a position to supply time-limited reduction in particular areas. Lastly, the coronavirus disaster additionally subjected the enterprise continuity plans of the monetary trade and FINMA as a supervisory authority to a stress take a look at. It was obvious that each have been properly ready for the disaster.

Intensive supervision continued

Moreover the challenges surrounding the pandemic, FINMA rigorously pursued its supervisory exercise. Regardless of its staff working from dwelling and the lockdown, for instance, it carried out round 100 on-site supervisory evaluations at banks. That's six per cent greater than within the earlier yr. As well as, FINMA centered on getting ready the institutional and regulatory framework for the implementation of FinSA and FinIA: it authorised 5 supervisory organisations, three registration our bodies and two reviewing our bodies for prospectuses in addition to pre-registering some 2,500 portfolio managers. FINMA is thus able to course of the authorisation requests that it expects to obtain from portfolio managers and trustees within the coming months swiftly. FINMA additionally centered on finishing up checks amongst supplementary well being insurers as a result of service settlements that have been missing in transparency and have been in some circumstances unjustified.

Enforcement: focus stays on cash laundering

In 2020, FINMA performed 628 investigations (2019: 816) and 33 enforcement proceedings (2019: 30) (enforcement statistics). These included proceedings that have been complicated and worldwide in scope in relation to combating cash laundering. FINMA issued and revealed two rulings in opposition to Julius Baer and Banca Credinvest referring to enterprise relationships related to Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) (case reviews). FINMA thus performed proceedings in opposition to establishments and accountable managers in reference to corruption circumstances corresponding to 1MDB, Petrobras and FIFA in additional than twenty circumstances between 2016 and 2019.

Annual monetary statements: barely greater prices as a result of implementation of FinSA/FinIA

FINMA’s prices rose barely within the yr underneath overview, having beforehand remained largely steady for a number of years. At CHF 125 million, they have been CHF 3.4 million greater in 2020 than within the earlier yr. That is because of the extra duties in reference to the implementation of FinSA and FinIA. The entire prices have been lined by earnings from supervisory charges and levies. The common variety of full-time equal positions on the authority was 501 in 2020 and has elevated barely in contrast with the earlier yr (489) because of the aforementioned extra duties.

Contact

Tobias Lux, Media Spokesperson
Tel. +41 31 327 91 71
tobias.lux@finma.ch

Vinzenz Mathys, Media Spokesperson
Tel. +41 31 327 19 77
vinzenz.mathys@finma.ch