Fines, accountability regime and enforcement transparency: where do we stand after three years?
AI Analysis
FINMA says its current enforcement toolkit is still too limited because it cannot generally impose administrative fines and can only publicly identify individual enforcement cases in narrow circumstances. The publication matters because it reinforces the direction of Swiss reform debate after Credit Suisse: more individual accountability, more deterrence, and more transparency in enforcement outcomes.
Key dates
- 2022
- - FINMA had already proposed introducing an accountability regime to define managers’ roles and responsibilities more clearly
- Summer 2023
- - An expert report renewed the call for fines, clearer senior-management responsibility, and greater enforcement transparency
- Spring 2024
- - The Federal Council’s TBTF report again carried forward these reform themes
- End of 2024
- - The Parliamentary Investigation Commission report recommended strengthening enforcement effectiveness and transparency
- Summer 2025
- - The Federal Council set parameters for upcoming legislative reforms including these enforcement-related measures
- 03 March 2026
- - FINMA’s referenced speech date in the publication URL indicates the current policy statement was delivered at the SFAA event
Suggested considerations
- Review governance maps and delegations to ensure each regulated activity, key control, and approval step is assigned to a clearly identified accountable senior manager.
- Document senior-management responsibilities in a manner that would withstand a future accountability-regime review, including decision rights, escalation duties, and oversight obligations.
- Stress-test enforcement readiness by preparing for formal FINMA proceedings that may end in binding rulings, remediation orders, or publication.
- Update incident-response and remediation workflows so that suspected supervisory-law breaches are escalated, investigated, and corrected quickly and with a complete evidence trail.
- Assume greater reputational exposure in enforcement cases and review internal communications, disclosure controls, and media-response protocols accordingly.
- Reassess control frameworks for systemically important activities in light of FINMA’s emphasis on restoring compliance and the broader post-Credit Suisse reform agenda.
What changed
- - FINMA is again advocating a statutory power to impose fines for serious supervisory-law breaches, which it says would strengthen deterrence and enforcement effectiveness.
- FINMA is again calling for a clearer allocation of responsibility among senior management, consistent with an accountability regime or senior managers’ regime.
- FINMA is again seeking the right to inform the public about concluded enforcement proceedings involving serious rule violations, rather than being restricted to anonymous statistics and exceptional publications.
- FINMA reiterates that it already uses formal enforcement proceedings to clarify facts and restore compliance, with measures concluded by a ruling.
- FINMA states that, under current law, it may generally only publish anonymous enforcement statistics and individual case disclosures only where there is a particular supervisory interest.
- FINMA frames the reform package as part of the post-Credit Suisse response and notes that these demands have been carried forward in successive official reviews, including the expert report, the Federal Council’s TBTF report, the Parliamentary Invest
Compliance impact
The immediate legal position is unchanged, but the supervisory direction is clear: FINMA is pushing for a more punitive, more personal, and more transparent enforcement framework. Firms that fail to strengthen governance, documentation, and remediation discipline face higher exposure to enforcement action, reputational harm, and future individual accountability measures once reforms are adopted.
Who is affected
References
AI-generated analysis. May contain errors or omissions — verify with the original FINMA source before acting. Full disclaimer.
What the FINMA said
No description available.
Published by FINMA . Read the full notice at the source for the authoritative text.