The Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA), which entered into force on 1 January 2020, provides that client advisers of Swiss financial service providers must be entered in the Swiss ‘Client Advisers’ Register (Art. 28 para. 1 FinSA).
In the case of foreign-based companies & advisers, who use the current ‘passporting’ into Switzerland to advise Swiss based clients and/or engage by phone or email from any county outside of Switzerland, must also comply and be entered on the Swiss ‘Client Advisor’ register.
The investment adviser as a financial service provider and client adviser, providing investment advice on a commercial basis constitutes a financial service and is therefore covered by the new FinSA (Art. 3 lit. c and d FinSA). Under the FinSA, investment advisers, wealth managers and financial advisers fall into the client adviser category. Client advisers are natural persons who come into contact with a client of a financial service provider and offer them a specific financial service or perform such a service (e.g. issuing individual investment recommendations, advice or managing of assets).
