New Swiss financial architecture: enforcement of claims by financial service customers

The recent enactment of the Financial Services Act (FinSA) and the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) concluded the substantial reform of Swiss financial market laws which constitute the new “Swiss financial market architecture”. The new regime introduces comprehensive regulation of financial services mirroring MiFID II. The prudential regime was extended significantly by subjecting all types of asset managers and trustees to public-law supervision and enforcement.

This International Briefing focuses on the civil-law enforcement of claims by financial service customers under Swiss law. During the political discussions that led to the new financial market architecture which spanned approximately two decades the individual enforcement of rights has been an important topic. However the FinSA ended up introducing only minor amendments regarding the civil judicial procedure. In particular no class-action-style procedural rules were introduced as these still seem...