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Art. 4 Authorisation application
(Art. 8 para. 2 FMIA) 1The financial market infrastructure must describe its area of business in factually and geographically precise terms in the articles of association, partnership agreements or regulations. 2The business area and its geographical extent must be in harmony with the financial market infrastructure's financial capabilities and administrative organisation. 2It may only report any changes in its articles of association to the commercial register and put any changes in regulations into effect following FINMA's approval of the changes in question.
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Art. 7 Place of management
(Art. 8 paras. 1 and 2 FMIA) 1The financial market infrastructure must effectively be managed from Switzerland. An exception is made here for general directives and decisions within the context of group supervision if the financial market infrastructure forms part of a financial group that is subject to appropriate consolidated supervision by a foreign financial market supervisory authority. 2The persons entrusted with managing the financial market infrastructure must be resident in a place from which they can effectively exercise such management.
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Art. 8 Corporate governance
(Art. 8 para. 2 FMIA) 1The financial market infrastructure must have an organisational structure and an organisational basis that set out the tasks, responsibilities, powers and accountability of the following bodies: - a.
- body for business management;
- b.
- body for governance, supervision and control;
- c.
- internal audit function.
2The body for governance, supervision and control must comprise at least three members. These may not belong to the bodies described in paragraph 1 letters a and c. 3The body for governance, supervision and control shall set out the basic risk management principles and determine the risk tolerance of the financial market infrastructure. This body shall have its work evaluated regularly. 4The financial market infrastructure shall define, implement and maintain a compensation policy that promotes sound and effective risk management and does not create incentives to relax risk standards. 5It must have mechanisms in place that allow it to establish the needs of participants with regard to the services provided by the financial market infrastructure.
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Art. 9 Risk management
(Art. 8 para. 3 FMIA) 1With regard to risk management, the financial market infrastructure must have a concept for the integrated identification, measurement, manage-ment and monitoring of risks, particularly with respect to: - a.
- legal risks;
- b.
- credit and liquidity risks;
- c.
- market risks;
- d.
- operational risks;
- e.
- settlement risks;
- f.
- reputational risks;
- g.
- general business risks.
2It must have instruments in place and create incentives in order to ensure that participants can continuously manage and limit the risks arising for themselves or for the financial market infrastructure. 3Insofar as the financial market infrastructure has indirect participants and these are identifiable, it must also identify, measure, control and monitor the risks posed to the financial market infrastructure by these parties. 4The internal documentation of the financial market infrastructure on passing a resolution and the monitoring of transactions associated with the risks should be designed in such a way that allows the audit firm to make a reliable assessment with respect to the business activity. 5The financial market infrastructure shall ensure an effective internal control system which, among other things, guarantees compliance with legal and internal company rules and regulations (compliance function). 6The internal audit function must submit a report to the body with responsibility for governance, supervision and control or to one of its committees. It must have sufficient resources as well as unrestricted audit rights.
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Art. 10 Guarantee of irreproachable business conduct
(Art. 9 paras. 2 and 3 FMIA) 1The authorisation application for a new financial market infrastructure must contain the following information and documentation in particular on the members of the board and executive management in accordance with Article 9 paragraph 2 FMIA and on the owners of a qualified participation in accordance with Article 9 paragraph 3 FMIA: - a.
- natural persons:
- 1.
- details on nationality, domicile, qualified participations in other companies and any pending court or administrative proceedings,
- 2.
- a curriculum vitae signed by the relevant person,
- 3.
- references,
- 4.
- an extract from the register of criminal convictions;
- b.
- companies:
- 1.
- the articles of association,
- 2.
- an extract from the commercial register or an attestation to this effect,
- 3.
- a description of business activities, the financial situation and, if applicable, the group structure,
- 4.
- details on completed and pending court or administrative proceedings.
2Persons holding a qualified participation must make a declaration to FINMA stating whether they hold the participation in question for their own account or on a fiduciary basis for a third party, and whether they have granted options or similar rights with respect to this participation. 3The financial market infrastructure must submit to FINMA within 60 days of the end of the financial year a list of all qualified participants in the financial market infrastructure. This list shall contain details on the identity and participation rate of all qualified participants as at the relevant closing date, as well as any changes relative to the prior-year closing date. In addition, the information and documentation set out in paragraph 1 is to be submitted for any qualified participants being reported for the first time.
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Art. 11 Outsourcing
(Art. 11 FMIA) 1An outsourcing situation in accordance with Article 11 paragraph 1 FMIA is deemed to exist if the financial market infrastructure has commissioned a service provider to independently and permanently provide an essential service for the financial market infrastructure in accordance with Article 12. 2The following aspects in particular are to be addressed in the agreement with the service provider: - a.
- the service to be outsourced and the services of the service provider;
- b.
- the responsibilities and the reciprocal rights and duties, particularly the financial market infrastructure's rights of inspection, instruction and control;
- c.
- the security requirements that must be fulfilled by the service provider;
- d.
- the service provider's adherence to the financial market infrastructure's business confidentiality and, insofar as legally protected data is provided to the service provider, the service provider's adherence to professional confidentiality;
- e.
- the rights of inspection and access of the internal audit function, the external audit firm, FINMA and - in the case of systemically important financial market infrastructures - the Swiss National Bank (SNB).
3The financial market infrastructure must exercise care in the selection, instruction and controlling of the service provider. It shall integrate the outsourced service into its internal control system and monitor the services rendered by the service provider on an ongoing basis. 4Outsourcing to foreign countries requires appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the observance of professional confidentiality and data protection in accordance with Swiss law. Contracting parties of a financial market infrastructure whose data is to be sent to a service provider abroad must be informed about this. 5The financial market infrastructure, its internal audit function, the external audit firm, FINMA and - in the case of systemically important financial market infrastructures - the SNB must be able to inspect and review the outsourced service. 6Paragraphs 1 to 5 do not apply if a central securities depository outsources some of its services or activities to a technical platform that connects securities settlement systems by way of providing a public service. This kind of outsourcing must be governed by means of a dedicated regulatory and operational framework, which requires the approval of FINMA.
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Art. 12 Essential services
(Art. 11 para. 1 FMIA) 1Essential services are deemed to be services that are necessary for the continuation of important business processes, in particular in the areas of liquidity management, treasury, risk management, master data administration and accounting, personnel, information technology, and legal and compliance. 2The following services are also deemed to be essential: - a.
- in the case of trading venues:
- 1.
- all activities conducted with the aim of ensuring fair, efficient and orderly trading,
- 2.
- the operating of matching and market data distribution systems;
- b.
- in the case of central counterparties:
- 1.
- contractually entering into securities transactions or other contracts involving financial instruments between two participants or between one participant and another central counterparty,
- 2.
- the establishment of mechanisms relating to the planning for and protection against outages of participants or interoperably associated central counterparties, or relating to the segregation of the positions of indirect participants and clients of participants or to the transfer of positions to other participants;
- c.
- in the case of central securities depositories:
- 1.
- the operation of a central custodian or securities settlement system,
- 2.
- the initial recording of securities in a securities account,
- 3.
- the reconciliation of holdings;
- d.
- in the case of trade repositories:
- 1.
- the collection, management and retention of the reported data,
- 2.
- the publication of reported data,
- 3.
- the granting of access to reported data;
- e.
- in the case of payment systems:
- 1.
- the acceptance and execution of participants' payment orders,
- 2.
- the management of clearing accounts.
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Art. 13 Minimum capital
(Art. 12 FMIA) 1The minimum capital shall amount to: - a.
- for trading venues: CHF 1 million, whereby in well-founded cases FINMA may stipulate a minimum amount up to 50% higher;
- b.
- for central counterparties: CHF 10 million;
- c.
- for central securities depositories: CHF 5 million;
- d.
- for trade repositories: CHF 500,000;
- e.
- for payment systems: CHF 1.5 million.
2In the event of non-cash capital contributions, the value of the assets brought in and the amount of the liabilities shall be reviewed by a licensed audit firm. This also applies when an existing company is transformed into a financial market infrastructure.
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Art. 14 Business continuity
(Art. 24 para. 1 FMIA) The measures to improve the financial market structure's resolvability can encompass in particular: - a.
- structural improvements and unbundling by means of:
- 1.
- amendments to the legal structure to create business-aligned legal entities,
- 2.
- the creation of legally independent service units,
- 3.
- the elimination or minimisation of de facto compulsory government support, particularly by creating an independent management structure,
- 4.
- the reduction of geographical or balance sheet asymmetries;
- b.
- financial unbundling to contain risks of contagion by means of:
- 1.
- the reduction of capital participations between legal entities at the same level,
- 2.
- restrictions on the granting of unsecured loans and guarantees between legal entities at the same level within the financial group,
- 3.
- the creation of an incentive structure that gives rise to the highest possible degree of market-consistent intra-group financing;
- c.
- operational unbundling to safeguard data and ensure continuation of important operational services by means of:
- 1.
- ensuring access to and use of data resources, databases and IT resources,
- 2.
- the separation or permanent outsourcing of key functions,
- 3.
- access to and continued use of systems essential to business operations.
3The financial market infrastructure shall describe, upon submission of the plan, what measures it is preparing or has already implemented to improve its resolvability both in Switzerland and abroad (Art. 21). 4It shall submit to FINMA annually, and by the end of the second quarter of the year, the recovery plan and the information required for the resolution plan. The same documents should also be submitted if changes make a reworking necessary or if FINMA demands such a submission. 5FINMA shall grant the financial market infrastructure an appropriate period for the preparatory implementation of the measures envisaged in the resolution plan.
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