The Swiss Bankers Association has rejected the Swiss Federal Banking Commission’s draft circular on internal surveillance, according to a st...

The Swiss Bankers Association has rejected the Swiss Federal Banking Commission’s draft circular on internal surveillance, according to a statement from the association. The Basel-based association is instead pushing the SFBC to adopt more “made-to-measure” solutions such as self-regulation or internal bank regulations. The SBA said in a statement: “While the SBA does in principle support the goals the SFBC is trying to achieve with its circular and also some of the planned contents, it nevertheless believes that no new state regulation is needed because many of the circular’s planned provisions are already in force in many banks as a result of the SBA’s ‘Directives on Internal Control’ issued in June 2002.” The association went on to say that it rejects the new “whistle blowing” clause that has been put forward in the circular. “In its proposed form the whistle blowing clause would radically change the internal culture of banks as well as the atmosphere in the workplace,” the statement said. It added: “The SBA finds the SFBC’s argument that whistle blowing could be an ‘early warning’ system to be rather wobbly as there are today other and more effective methods with which to control and manage risk.”