On 13 October 2026 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published six Regulatory Consistency Assessment Programme (RCAP) reports on how Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom implement its leverage ratio framework. Australia, Japan, Korea and Switzerland were graded compliant, the highest overall grade. Canada and the UK were graded largely compliant, one…
On 8 October 2026 FINMA published a partial revision of FINMA Circular 2016/7 “Video and online identification”, the circular that sets out how Swiss financial intermediaries meet their Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) due diligence duties when a client relationship is opened through a digital channel. FINMA adopted the amendments on 23 September 2026, and they…
On 30 September 2026 FINMA opened a consultation on a partial revision of FINMA Circular 2017/6 “Direct transmission”, the circular that sets out when Swiss supervised institutions may send non-public information straight to a foreign authority without going through FINMA’s administrative assistance. Comments are due by 27 November 2026, and FINMA plans to bring the…
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) reported on 5 October 2026 that three quarters of its 27 member jurisdictions have published rules adopting the final Basel III standards, and that almost all of them have publicly announced that banks must apply Basel III by April 2027 or earlier. The figures come from the Committee’s…
On 18 September 2026 the Federal Council amended the Ordinance of 16 March 2022 on Measures against Belarus (SR 946.231.116.9), and the changes took effect in Switzerland on 19 September. FINMA flagged the change in a notice on 25 September. The FINMA Belarus sanctions notice points to a financial package modelled on the Russia regime:…
On 15 September 2026 the ECB published a letter, dated the previous day, in which the Advisory Group on Market Infrastructures for Securities and Collateral (AMI-SeCo) formally asked Swift to move its 2026 securities message upgrade onto the TARGET Services June 2027 release. AMI-SeCo’s purpose is practical: the group is trying to protect the testing…
Speaking at the Small Bank Symposium in Bern on 7 September 2026, FINMA’s chief executive set out to answer a complaint the supervisor keeps hearing: that Switzerland’s small institutions are watched too closely while the large banks are left alone. His defence rested on the FINMA small banks regime, the voluntary framework that has run…
On 20 August 2026 FINMA published a short notice reminding supervised financial intermediaries that the Federal Council had, the day before, adopted the further measures of the European Union’s 20th Russia sanctions package. The FINMA Russia sanctions notice points to a decision taken on 19 August 2026, with the new Swiss measures entering into force…
On 19 August 2026 FINMA flagged an update to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions notification tied to Ordinance SR 946.231.08. The trigger sits one step upstream: the UN Security Council’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee amended its list by decision of 14 August 2026, and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) adjusted…
FINMA’s updated Iran sanctions notification of 18 August 2026 marks a precise moment on the clock. At 23:00 that evening, an amendment to Annexes 12, 13 and 14 of the Ordinance of 12 December 2025 on measures against the Islamic Republic of Iran (SR 946.231.143.6) took effect. The Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and…