Financial market policy and strategy

The financial markets are among the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy. The most important goals of financial market regulation are protection of the individual (protection of creditors, investors and insured persons), system stability and properly functioning financial markets. Financial market regulation thus helps to strengthen the reputation, competitiveness and future viability of the Swiss financial centre.

Sustainability in the financial sector is becoming increasingly important, both nationally and internationally. For the Swiss financial centre, sustainability in the financial sector presents a considerable opportunity. The government primarily acts as mediator and facilitator in this context, cultivating an intensive dialogue with the financial industry and interested third parties and supporting the creation of an optimal regulatory framework.

Switzerland is a world leader in commodity trading. The Swiss commodity sector includes not only trading companies, but also banks specialised in the financing of commodity trading, goods inspection companies, shipping companies and insurance companies. Its importance for the Swiss economy is as significant as ever. Approximately 950 companies with more than 10,000 employees are active in the commodity sector in Switzerland.

Switzerland attaches great importance to a clean financial centre and has an effective anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime in place. It rigorously applies this regime.

Switzerland takes the problem of illicit financial flows very seriously. It is an active proponent of international standards to combat abuse and has implemented a number of measures to ensure the integrity of its financial centre, which is one of the most important in the world. In addition, it has been supporting programmes to strengthen financial institutions in developing countries for many years.

Financial institutions remain lucrative targets for cyberattacks. Cyber risks are among the most important large risks and have the potential to endanger financial market stability.

According to the EU share trading obligation, EU investment firms can in principle trade Swiss shares on Swiss trading venues only if the EU has recognised the equivalence of the Swiss trading venues. The EU granted Switzerland stock market equivalence only until the end of June 2019, but did not extend it beyond that date. Switzerland subsequently activated the measure to protect its stock exchange infrastructure (protective measure). As the EU still did not recognise the equivalence of Swiss stock exchange regulation, the safeguard measure was transferred to ordinary law on 1 January 2024.