November 7, 2025

07.11.2025, Enrico Giacoletto

The aim of this post is to give a brief overview of the main Swiss regulatory announcements impacting banks and financial institutions in the third quarter of 2025.

We will not go into the changes concerning systemically important banks and the measures still under discussion at political level.

Contents

1. List of key early summer highlights
2. The most important announcements of the third quarter 2025
3. Draft amendment to the Ordinance on Shareholders' Equity (OFR)
4. New FINMA ordinances on risk diversification (ORR-FINMA) and bank liquidity (OLiq-FINMA)
5. Conclusion

List of key early summer entries :

Summer is traditionally a quiet period for implementing new regulations. There are only two major entries into force to discuss:

• End of the transitional period on June 30, 2025, for the implementation of certain provisions of FINMA Circular 2025/02 "Rules of conduct under the Investment Services Act and the Investment Services Act". We covered this topic in our newsletter of July^1, 2025, which you can find directly by following this link.
• FINMA circular 25/04 on consolidated supervision under the BL and LEFin comes into force on July¹, 2025. We covered this topic in our newsletter of September 26, 2024, available by following this link.

Key announcements since our last newsletter of July^1, 2025

Since the end of the summer break, a number of announcements have been made:

• At the end of October 2025, the Federal Council put out to consultation a draft amendment to LEFin in order to improve the regulatory framework for fintech, blockchain, stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. In particular, the aim is to add two new categories of authorization to LEFin: authorization as an establishment for means of payment and authorization as an establishment for services with cryptoassets. We'll be coming back to this subject in more detail in our next blog.
• The consultation period for the new Ordinance on the Transparency of Legal Entities and the Identification of Beneficial Owners and the partial revision of the MLO will run from October 15, 2025 to January 30, 2026. We will return to this subject in our next post.
• On October 9, 2025, FINMA communication 04/2025 "Extension of the transitional period applicable to the exchange of collateral in certain OTC derivatives transactions" further extends the deadline for implementing the exchange of collateral in certain cases (in accordance with art. 107 para. 1 and 110 para. 1 of the LIMF).
• On October 7, 2025, the final version of the Law on the Transparency of Legal Persons (LTPM) and the revision of the MLA were published in the Federal Gazette. These changes will be discussed in our next newsletter.
• In September, MROS (Money laundering Reporting Office Switzerland) published a practical guide entitled "Negative typologies", designed to raise awareness among financial intermediaries of the minimum information and quality required to validly meet the reporting obligation under Art. 9 of the Money Laundering Act (MLA). In October, MROS also published the second volume of its "Typologie 2025" report. A third and new section entitled "Focus: enabler" has been added to illustrate cases involving facilitators. These new illustrations complement the first volume published in May 2025.
• Still on the subject of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the Federal Council announced on September 12 that it was evaluating several new funding models for MROS, to enable it to cope with the sharp rise in the number of SARs it receives.
• The FDF has launched a consultation on several amendments to the Ordinance on Capital Requirements (OFR). The subject is developed below.
• FINMA has begun hearings on the new FINMA ordinances on risk diversification (ORR-FINMA) and bank liquidity (OLiq-FINMA), which will replace a number of existing FINMA circulars. The subject is also developed below.
• In terms of international cooperation, on September 22, FINMA and the UK authorities jointly announced the strengthening of their cooperation in financial services supervision. At the same time, the Swiss authorities are continuing to adapt the legal framework to enhance international cooperation in financial market supervision. To this end, on September 12, the Federal Council adopted the Message on the amendments to the FINMASA, the RSA and the NBA.
• On September 4, FINMA published a new Insolvency Ordinance (OIns-FINMA). In force since October¹, 2025, the Oins-FINMA replaces 3 ordinances: the OIB-FINMA, the OFA-FINMA and the OFPC-FINMA, which are repealed on the same date.
• With regard to the automatic exchange of information (EAR), on August 13 the Federal Council launched a consultation aimed at adding 8 new countries: Armenia, Cameroon, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia.
• On the subject of sustainability for companies, the Federal Council is temporarily suspending work on revising the Ordinance on Climate Reporting in order to observe regulatory developments in Europe and incorporate the recommendations of the Federal Department of Justice and Police. The procedure will resume in spring 2026 at the latest.
• On the subject of sustainability for investment funds, the Asset Management Association Switzerland (AMAS) has published version 2.2 of its self-regulation on transparency and publication of information by collective assets.

Draft amendment to the Ordinance on Shareholders' Equity (OFR)

The revisions announced by the Federal Council to the Swiss Capital Adequacy Ordinance (FCAO), together with the new FINMA ordinances on risk diversification (ORR-FINMA) and liquidity (OLiq-FINMA), are the first of a series of measures to be implemented in the wake of the Credit Suisse emergency merger.

This summer, there were two consultations on the OFR:

• The one announced on September 26, 2025 concerns only systemically important banks and the treatment of coverage for foreign holdings;
• The one announced on June 6, 2025 may affect all plants, and is detailed below.

New FINMA ordinances on risk diversification (ORR-FINMA) and bank liquidity (OLiq-FINMA)

These 2 new ordinances were put out to consultation between July and September 2025. FINMA intends to replace 3 existing circulars (Circ.-FINMA 19/1, 13/7 and 15/2) with two new FINMA ordinances:

• The Ordinance on Risk Diversification for Banks and Securities Dealers (ORR-FINMA); and
• Ordinance on the Liquidity of Banks and Securities Dealers (OLiq-FINMA).

The new ORR-FINMA and OLiq-FINMA ordinances are scheduled to come into force on January^1, 2027. Circulars 19/1, 13/7 and 15/2 will be repealed at that time.

Analysis of the changes brought about by the OLiq-FINMA project

Although FINMA circular 15/02 is largely unchanged, a number of changes have been introduced. We would like to highlight two of them:

• Art. 17 of the draft OLiq-FINMA details the implementation and transmission of information to be provided in order to apply the new article 11 "Provision of information in the event of an actual or expected liquidity shortage", of the OLiq, which will come into force with the current revision of the OFR.
• FINMA is tightening up its liquidity and financing planning requirements. Articles 5 and 6 of the draft OLIiq-FINMA set out these expectations in detail. Art. 7 of the OLIiq remains unchanged, although FINMA's expectations in this area are clearly set to intensify.

Conclusion

Financial regulation in Switzerland will continue to evolve rapidly, given the specific features of the country's financial industry and the emergency merger of Credit Suisse. Fortunately, proportionality and relief for smaller institutions continue to be taken into account in some new texts. easyReg has updated its article on the subject of proportionality and relief for smaller banks.

You can find previous editions of this post on the ISFB website by following this link.

Enrico Giacoletto, CFA, FRM

easyReg Sàrl

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