An amendment to the Professional Pension Insurance Act came into force on January 1 2014. The revised provisions specify new requirements for the management of Swiss professional pension insurance assets.
The regulatory changes can be summarised as follows:
– The Upper Supervisory Authority for Professional Pension Insurances (OAK BV) (an independent executive body responsible for the supervision of Swiss professional pension insurance managers) can admit Swiss financial service providers to manage Swiss professional pension insurance assets – mainly independent asset managers unsupervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
– Foreign financial service providers may likewise become entitled to manage Swiss professional pension insurance assets, provided that:
– they are supervised by a financial supervisory authority in their home jurisdiction and OAK BV recognises such supervision to be adequate; or
– they are admitted in Switzerland (like the further Swiss financial service providers).
The new law does not provide for ongoing supervision, but only for extensive examination of integrity before admission and periodic admission renewal.
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