SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olivier Favre and Tarek Houdrouge, Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd
1 January 2026. In the context of the FinMIA Refit, the temporary exemption is intended to become a permanent one.
settlement currency and a maturity between seven days and three years; • OIS with federal funds (FedFunds) as underly - ing, USD as settlement currency and a maturity between seven days and three years; • OIS with the euro short-term rate (EuroSTR) as underlying, EUR as settlement currency and a maturity between seven days and three years; • OIS with the sterling overnight indexed average rate (SONIA) as underlying, GBP as settlement cur - rency and a maturity between seven days and 50 years; and • OIS with the Tokyo overnight average rate (TONA) as underlying, JPY as settlement currency and a maturity between seven days and 30 years. The following credit default swaps are subject to the clearing obligation: • credit default swaps (index, not tranched) on iTraxx Europe Main as the underlying, EUR as settlement currency and a maturity of five years; and • credit default swaps (index, not tranched) on iTraxx Europe Crossover as the underlying, EUR as settle - ment currency and a maturity of five years. No other derivatives transactions (eg, FX derivatives, commodity derivatives or equity derivatives) are sub - ject to a clearing obligation. 3.1.3 Mandatory Trading FINMA has the competence to resolve that certain derivatives will become subject to a mandatory trad - ing obligation. However, FINMA has not exercised such competence to date. The mandatory trading obligation would be subject to the following: • FINMA must take into account the degree of stand - ardisation of the relevant derivatives transactions both from a legal and operational perspective, the liquidity of the relevant products, the traded vol - umes, the availability of information for determining market prices, and the counterparty risks involved with the relevant products;
3. Regulation of Derivatives 3.1 National 3.1.1 National Regulators
FINMA is the Swiss regulatory authority in charge of applying the rules of the Swiss derivatives regulation. Such rules are specified in the FinMIA and the Fin - MIO and the FINMA Ordinance on Financial Market Infrastructures and Derivatives Trading of 3 December 2015 (the “FinMIO-FINMA”). As regards financial counterparties, the internal and external auditors of a regulated firm are, in the con - text of the annual regulatory audit process, in charge of confirming compliance with such rules. As regards non-financial counterparties, financial auditors are mandated to confirm whether, and how, the firm com - plies with such rules. 3.1.2 Clearing The clearing obligation applies under the rules of the FinMIA to certain interest rate derivatives and cer - tain credit default swaps on indices, except if they are entered into with a small financial or a small non- financial counterparty. These clearing requirements apply to some of the derivatives that are currently subject to a clearing obligation under EMIR. The following interest rate products are subject to the clearing obligation: • basis swaps and fixed-to-floating rate swaps on the euro interbank offered rate (Euribor) as under - lying, EUR as settlement currency and a maturity between 28 days and 50 years; • forward rate agreements (FRAs) on Euribor as underlying, EUR as settlement currency and a maturity between three days and three years; • overnight index swaps (OIS) on the secured over - night financing rate (SOFR) as underlying, USD as
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