At present, Switzerland has an innovative and high-performance banking industry that is to remain a leading centre for global wealth management in future. A well-diversified banking sector will also ensure crisis-resistance and the cost-efficient provision of services for customers, companies and the general public.
Swiss banking stands for the successful combination of traditional strengths such as solidity and discretion, as well as innovations such as digital banking and Fintech. In future, customers should be able to continue to count on the broad offering of high-quality financial services, on the legal certainty and stable conditions in Switzerland, the expertise and conscientiousness of the banks and their employees, as well as the quality of their advice and service.
Switzerland will remain a preferred location for foreign financial institutions in future because they benefit from Swiss banking’s good reputation, the business-friendly environment and the large pool of talent in Switzerland.
Reaching the financial centre’s strategic objectives requires the combined efforts of government, the authorities and the sector itself.
The banks that conduct business in Switzerland offer outstanding customer service. They stand for sustainability and integrity. All of the key international standards (e.g. tax compliance, capital requirements) are adhered to. Swiss banks and the Swiss financial centre as a whole are leaders in technology and innovation. They encourage the basic and further training of their employees to ensure they satisfy the high demands of customers and markets, and thus contribute to safeguarding continued competitiveness.
A competitive, diverse and high-performance banking industry relies on liberal and business-friendly framework conditions. Legislators create an attractive fiscal environment to this end, and through lean but effective regulation and supervision, ensure the Swiss financial centre is on equal footing with competing locations abroad. The automatic exchange of information (AEOI), for example, should be implemented in step with other important international financial centres, whereby a conclusive and fair resolution of the past for customers in fiscal matters must be striven for. The legislator modernises customer protection in such a way as to allow responsible customers to make independent decisions. By clarifying its relationship with the EU, Switzerland creates legal certainty and at the same time safeguards further key locational factors such as the debt-brake, political stability and security, as well as an efficient infrastructure, the educational system and research.
To ensure the banking business does not suffocate as a result of the high density and flood of regulation, the regulatory process must be designed in a way that is needs-based and efficient. This requires binding legal principles. The idea of an independent regulatory inspection authority should be further pursued. In principle, regulatory activities should be adjusted in line with international developments. In such instances, Switzerland should use its room for manoeuvre to achieve liberal and differentiated regulation and forego an unnecessary “Swiss finish”.
In order to maintain the exportability of financial services to countries abroad and to secure future growth, Switzerland is seeking to secure non-discriminating market access to EU/EEA markets as well as growth regions. In addition, the financial centre is looking to improve market access in key partner states for the near-term. In areas where required and desirable, Switzerland is striving for regulation and supervision that is in substance equivalent to that of the EU/EEA, while preserving its scope for action at the national level. At the same time, it remains open to branches of foreign financial services providers and strengthens the reputation of the financial centre abroad.
