Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes

¹For­eign col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes must be ap­proved by FINMA be­fore they can be offered in or from Switzer­land to non-qual­i­fied in­vestors. The rep­res­ent­at­ive shall sub­mit the doc­u­ments re­quir­ing ap­prov­al to FINMA¹.

²Ap­prov­al is gran­ted if:

a.²

the col­lect­ive in­vest­ment scheme, fund man­age­ment com­pany or com­pany, as­set man­ager of the col­lect­ive in­vest­ment scheme and de­pos­it­ory are sub- ject to pub­lic su­per­vi­sion in­ten­ded to pro­tect in­vestors;

b.³

with re­gard to or­gan­iz­a­tion, in­vestor rights and in­vest­ment policy, the fund man­age­ment com­pany or com­pany and the de­pos­it­ory are sub­ject to reg­ula- tions which are equi­val­ent to the pro­vi­sions of this Act;

c.

the des­ig­na­tion of the col­lect­ive in­vest­ment scheme does not provide grounds for con­fu­sion or de­cep­tion;

d.⁴

a rep­res­ent­at­ive and a pay­ing agent are ap­poin­ted for the of­fer of units in Switzer­land;

e.⁵

there is an agree­ment on co­oper­a­tion and the ex­change of in­form­a­tion between FINMA and the for­eign su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies rel­ev­ant to the of­fer.

^2bisThe rep­res­ent­at­ive and the pay­ing agent may only end their man­date with FINMA’s pri­or ap­prov­al.⁶

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify a sim­pli­fied, fast-track ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure for for­eign col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes provided such in­vest­ments have already been ap­proved by a for­eign su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity, such ar­range­ment be­ing re­cip­roc­al.

⁴For­eign col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes which are offered in Switzer­land to qual­i­fied in­vestors in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 FinSA⁷ do not re­quire ap­prov­al but must meet the con­di­tions pur­su­ant to para­graph 2 let­ters c and d at all times.⁸

⁵Em­ploy­ee share par­ti­cip­a­tion schemes in the form of for­eign col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes that are offered ex­clus­ively to em­ploy­ees do not re­quire ap­prov­al.⁹