Advocacy Committee

The regulatory working group is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to governmental bodies and other appropriate stakeholders.

It supports the relation toward regulators and other governmental institutions, while pushing specific topics to discuss and debate about. Focus are public/private roundtables, during which each person is given equal right to participate. The main goal of the working group is to make the Swiss FinTech Ecosystem more innovative and with it competitive from a regulatory, strategic and political side.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Advocacy Committee

  • coordinate over regular meetings
  • main source of contact for regulators and policy makers
  • provide expertise and knowledge on urgent regulatory related matters.
  • provide unbiased insights (we represent the ecosystem) and ideas from a third point-of-view encourage and support the exploration of new ideas (sandbox)
  • provide regular formal output to counsel governmental bodies
  • Speak on behalf of and represent the Association occasionally at the relevant events and roundtables
  • Highlights from 2020

  • Highlights from 2019

  • Highlights from 2018

    • Responses to requests for comments
    • Roundtables
      • Secretariat for International Finance Matters Roundtable of Sustainable FinTech
    • References
      • Luca Bianchi quoted in Payments Compliance on subject of Online Identification

  • Highlights from 2017

    • Responses to requests for comments
      • SFTA responded to the public consultation procedure for FINMA’s  proposed change of the banking law / FinTech license
    • Round tables
      • On 24 August 2016, SFTA hosted a Regulatory Roundtable in Zurich, inviting representatives from the authorities (members of Parliament, SIF, FINMA, EFD) and from fintech enterprises to discuss regulatory pain points and potential avenues to relieve them. Discussions were wide-ranging and identified some areas of particular interest where further investigation and input from the industry is required.
    • References
      • FINMA Circular 2017 “Vernehmlassung zur änderung des bankg und der der bankv (FinTech)” Available here
      • FINMA Circular 2016 “Video and Online Identification” Available here
        • Our response to the FINMA circular (18.01.2016) Download
      • Stellungnahme Teilrevision FINMA RS2011/1 Available here

  • Highlights from 2016

    • Responses to requests for comments
      • SFTA responded to the public consultation procedure for FINMA’s Circular on video and online identification, noting in particular that Singapore’s approach to regulate the same domain appears to be significantly more technology agnostic
      • SFTA responded to the public consultation procedure for FINMA’s partial revision of Circular 2011/1 “Finanzintermediation nach GwG”, noting in particular that FINMA’s approach to regulate entities domiciled in Switzerland rather than entities serving Swiss domiciled Swiss clients puts Swiss entities at a comparative disadvantage relative to their peers domiciled abroad.
      • SFTA participated in a non-public pre-consultation initiated by the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, suggesting that regulation increasingly take into account its impact on the competitiveness of Switzerland in an intense global competition

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