Authorisation – gaining entry to the financial market

Any individual or company seeking to manage clients’ money or take money from investors, underwrite insurance policies, or set up and manage a collective investment scheme requires authorisation from FINMA. Only where statutory requirements have been met are licences issued.

Authorised companies are then supervised. FINMA supervision varies in intensity. Depending on the legal provisions, it can range from intensive, ongoing supervision to a simple act of registration, after which FINMA will only step in if it receives reports of inappropriate conduct. Under certain circumstances, service providers must join a private self-regulatory organisation instead. 

Search

To check whether an individual, a company or a financial product has been authorised, you can search for the name here. If you are searching for an insurance intermediary, then the register for insurance intermediaries is available to you.

Contact

In you are in any doubt, contact the following address to find out whether a service provider has been authorised to operate:

Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA
Laupenstrasse 27
CH – 3003 Bern

Hotline: +41 31 327 98 88
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. – 12 noon

Email: questions@fnma.ch