Pursuant to Art. 21 FIDLEG, financial service providers, irrespective of any authorisation status, must structure their organisation in such a way that they can guarantee compliance with the obligations laid down in FIDLEG. In the case of supervised financial service providers in particular, corporate governance, risk management and the company’s internal control systems must be aligned with the provisions of the FIDLEG.

A financial service provider must ensure that its employees have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience. If necessary, the employees shall be entered in the register of consultants in accordance with Art. 28 et seq. FIDLEG to be entered.

Yes, financial service providers can call in third parties for the provision of services (Art. 23 FIDLEG). In doing so, they shall ensure that the persons consulted or their employees have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience and, if necessary, are entered in the register of advisors pursuant to Art. 28 et seq.

Yes, a financial services provider must ensure that its employees have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience and, if necessary, are entered in the register of advisors pursuant to Art. 28 et seq. of the Swiss Code of Obligations. FIDLEG are registered. This also means that a financial services provider must ensure that its employees are trained and further educated and that specific expertise is acquired.

In order to avoid conflicts of interest and disadvantages for customers as well as the acceptance of advantages and employee transactions, the FIDLEG provides for organisational precautions in Art. 25 – 27 FIDLEG.

Financial service providers must generally avoid conflicts of interest when providing services to clients. Accordingly, they ensure that their own interests and the interests of their employees do not conflict with those of their clients. They must also ensure that customer interests do not conflict with each other. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, financial service providers must first take the essential steps to identify potential or current conflicts of interest. In particular, they must examine whether there are incentives for the financial services provider or its employees to neglect the interests of customers or to put them behind their own interests. Both financial compensation from third parties to the financial service provider and incentives from the financial service provider to employees must be taken into account.

At the heart of avoiding conflicts of interest is Art. 26 FIDLEG, which provides for “compensation by third parties”. Pursuant to Art. 26 para. 3, this includes, among other things, brokerage fees, commissions, commissions, discounts or other economic advantages accruing to the financial services provider from third parties.

Such advantages may only be accepted by financial service providers if the customer has expressly waived the right to such advantages or if the advantages are passed on to the customer. The Federal Supreme Court practice developed under contract law aspects regarding the validity of a waiver of the surrender of such benefits is adopted and its applicability is simultaneously extended to all types of financial services.

Financial service providers who do not pass on the full benefits to their customers may no longer describe their services as independent in future.