SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Judith Raijmakers and Florian Thomas Willi, Loyens & Loeff
and forms will be made available to the applicant on the EHP. Subsequently, the application for the banking licence can be submitted directly via the platform. After the licence application has been submit - ted, a FINMA staff member will be assigned to it who is responsible for the procedure. The FINMA Fees and Charges Ordinance sets out a framework for the tariffs in relation to the licence application. They vary from CHF10,000 to CHF100,000. The exact costs for each licence application are determined on the basis of the actual time FINMA spends on processing it. Processing time of the application depends on the licensing type, quality and complexity of the application as well as FINMA’s workload. Overview: Requirements for a Banking Licence Banks are required to adhere to stringent organi - sational, financial, and risk management stand - ards. For a banking licence to be granted, the applicant must meet all licensing requirements. The following are considered key requirements by FINMA: • a minimum capital of CHF10 million (fully paid-up); • a detailed and accurate description of the business, including its geographical scope, to be included in the articles of association, partnership agreement, and business rules; • a business plan demonstrating continuous compliance with capital adequacy, risk diver - sification, and liquidity requirements; • assurance of irreproachable business con - duct by qualified participants (ie, shareholders holding at least 10% of the capital or voting rights) and members of management (fit and proper requirements);
• management of the bank to be effectively conducted from Switzerland; • distinction between ultimate strategic man - agement and executive management (no member of the bank’s board of directors may simultaneously be part of the executive man - agement); • effective segregation of internal functions, especially lending, trading, asset manage - ment, and settlement; • effective risk management, specifically through the proper identification, limitation, and monitoring of market, credit, default, settlement, liquidity, reputational, operational, and legal risks; • effective internal control system, with an internal audit function that operates indepen - dently of executive management; • appointment of a recognised audit firm for the licensing process; and • appointment of a recognised regulatory audit firm for continuous supervision. There are additional requirements that must be met in specific situations. Certain requirements are imposed on foreign banks. For applicants under foreign control (ie, a foreign shareholder holds at least 50% of the capital or voting rights or otherwise controls the applicant), FINMA may require the relevant jurisdiction to grant reciproc - ity. FINMA may also require adequate consolidated supervision by a recognised supervisory author - ity if the applicant is considered to be part of a financial group. If the individual group companies are obviously independent of each other, FINMA can exclude them from the group assessment. This can be justified in particular if the group companies pursue different business models or objectives and this leads to a differentiated risk assessment.
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