There are a range of business associations and organisations representing different parts of the Swiss wealth management and financial scene, both official and private sector. This article lists the main entities.

Any wealth manager seeking to understand the Swiss private banking and wider wealth management arena needs to be familiar with a plethora of organisations. To complicate matters, the Alpine state is not a unitary one but a federal entity – there are 26 cantons with a wide array of local taxes and regulations that defy sweeping generalisation. Rules are in flux: this is a nation that loves its referenda – recent months have seen votes on issues such as immigration and whether the Swiss National Bank should increase its use of gold in its reserves. With that level of complexity in mind, this publication decided to take a virtual “tour” around some of the principal institutions and business groups in the country. We hope readers find this useful; if there are bodies that readers think we have overlooked, we invite emails to tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com

Swiss Bankers Association
This is the main organisation representing banking in the country and at the last time of counting by its website, said there were 283 banking institutions, ranging across various categories, in the country. The SBA lobbies on behalf of the banking sector, compiles data and organises conferences, some of which have been reported on by this news service. There is a large directory on its website.

Swiss Association of Independent Financial Advisors (SAIFA)
This organisation says it is a “group of economic interests formed by specialised independent financial intermediaries who are confirmed professionals in the financial services industry”. The organisation said it is open to contact with “any person interested in the business of wealth management seeking to promote dialogue with the banking partners and authorities at all levels”. The website publishes a number of links to private banks, wealth management organisations, official regulators, and publishes names of a number of partners, such as UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, Julius Baer, Lombard Odier, and iShares.

Swiss Financial Market Supervision Authority (FINMA)
Along with some of its global peers such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority or the Monetary Authority of Singapore, this body has had to deal with a raft of global challenges around bankers’ conduct, but in addition, Switzerland’s singular and embattled status as a banking secrecy location. As one would expect, FINMA’s public website and documents are available in English as well as French and German; it has a large, and to this writer, refreshingly easy-to-use directory to search for the names of the firms and bodies it oversees.

State Secretariat for International Financial Matters
An official organisation that publishes updates on issues such as US-Swiss and other multilateral/bilateral tax and regulatory agreements, as well as documents about the size and scope of the Swiss financial sector, stock market, number of banks, and other entities.

Federal Department of Finance
Part of the Swiss federal government, as the name suggests. It mainly deals with budgetary and state-wide tax issues and has been led, since 2010, by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, federal councillor. Her tenure has coincided with a number of tense negotiations with the US, and other countries, about Switzerland’s banks and the accounts of foreigners. In 2013, for example, the country signed a sweeping agreement with the US under which a raft of Swiss banks have signed non-prosecution agreements, and paid fines, in exchange for drawing a line under the issue of their holding offshore accounts for US nationals.

Swiss National Bank
The central bank stunned financial markets in January this year by removing the SFr1.20 exchange rate cap against the euro, a policy that had been in place for over three years to protect Swiss exporters from a strong currency. The SNB is closely involved in policies such as the level of capital required to be held by systemically-important Swiss banks, namely the “big two” of UBS and Credit Suisse. Its policy on reserves was even the subject of a recent referendum about whether at least 20 per cent of its reserves should be held as gold. (The campaign to move in that direction was defeated, although ironically the abandonment of the Swiss franc cap has met some of the demands of the pro-gold lobby.)

The Office of the Attorney General
This body takes the lead in dealing with serious legal cases, such as criminal investigations, and has, for example, been probing a massive alleged corruption scandal involving 1MDB, the state-owned Malaysian investment fund because of transfers via Swiss bank accounts.

The Centre for Banking and Financial Law
This is a body of teachers and researchers working in continual close contact with the industry and with supervisory authorities, lawyers and judges. It was set up by the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva. Its purpose is to foster and publish up-to-the-minute research, offer courses and ongoing training, and organise conferences on topics relating to banking operations and the supervision of financial intermediaries and financial markets.

Swiss Finance Institute
Set up by official and private sector organisations involving academe, the SFI publishes detailed papers on a range of issues in financial services, including wealth management, economics, financial risk management and investment management. It is composed of a network of academics across Switzerland and holds a series of seminars and other events. WealthBriefing last year took part in a wealth management symposium near Zurich that was organised by the SFI and has published some of the SFI’s reports.

Association of Swiss Private Banks
This Geneva-based organisation represents the traditional private banks owned by unlimited liability partners – it was reconstituted around two years ago after three such private banks – Mirabaud, Pictet and Lombard Odier – shed their unlimited liability structures and moved to a limited liability model to adjust to changed business circumstances. The Association publishes reports on industry concerns, data on the size of the industry, and notes high-level moves.

Swiss Association of Asset Managers
The organisation seeks to represent the investment management sector in the country and is likely to – or should – become more prominent in future as Swiss firms put more focus on value-added services in investment instead of its older reliance on secretive banking.

Swiss Insurance Association
As the name suggests, this group represents a mass of insurance companies in the country. The group has 77 small, large and international primary insurers and reinsurers in its membership.

Bank for International Settlements
Sometimes known as the “central banker’s central bank”, the BIS, which is based in the city of Basel, has given its name to the “Basel” capital standards that have been adopted by international banks. These rules have been controversial: it is sometimes argued that the implementation of these capital rules aggravated rather than abated the violence of the financial and economic business cycle. Also, the rules were seen as unfit for purpose in light of the tumult of the 2008 financial crisis, and there has been widespread debate around them since. BIS publishes reports on economic and financial data, on areas such as the derivatives market, foreign currency market, and monetary policies of the world’s main central banks.

Investments Office
An exceptionally useful directory that has a large database of independent asset managers in Switzerland, as well as private banks, wealth managers and family offices; it can be found at www.investmentsoffice.com

Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Switzerland
A director of all the chambers across the country’s cantons. For more about this network, see here: http://www.cci.ch/en/map.htm

Expert Suisse
Association of Auditing, Tax and Fiduciary experts of Switzerland. More than two-thirds of Swiss economy is covered by this organisation’s roster of more than 5,000 members. Its website is available in German and French: http://www.treuhand-kammer.ch/home.

Swiss Fiduciary Association
An umbrella organisation for fiduciary professionals working as trustees. Its website is http://www.treuhandsuisse.ch/xml_1/Internet/en/application/f41.cfm.

SATC - Swiss Association of Trust Companies
Members are Swiss based trust companies that perform trustee activities from within Switzerland. See http://www.satc.ch/01-0-about.htm.

STEP - Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
STEP Switzerland, a worldwide professional body for the trust and estate profession, is divided in five STEP centres in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has a joint web site: http://www.step-ch-fl.com/

Association of Foreign Banks in Switzerland

As the name suggests, it represents non-Swiss banks that operate in the country and it dates back to 1972, when it was founded by Swiss banks with majority shareholder domiciled abroad and Swiss branches of foreign banks. With more than 140 members today, it says it is the largest banking association in Switzerland - apart from the Swiss Bankers' Association, to which most of the foreign-controlled banks in Switzerland also belong. Membership of the Association is open to all foreign banks, securities' dealers, managers and agents of investment funds. Other legal entities or private persons can join the Association as observer without voting rights. Its website is here. http://www.foreignbanks.ch and is available in four languages.