The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has opened the consultation for the revision of its ordinance on stock exchanges and securities trading (FINMA Stock Exchange Ordinance, SESTO-FINMA). The partial revision focuses primarily on the new rule regarding disclosure requirements for foreign collective investment schemes. Other aspects of this revision concern disclosure obligations where exact threshold values are reached and a clearer publication of the notifications received. The consultation period will end on 5 September 2011.
The FINMA Stock Exchange Ordinance allows foreign collective investment schemes that are not authorised for distribution to provide proof of their independence from the group in order to take advantage of the exception regarding the obligation to consolidate with respect to the disclosure requirements (Art. 17, para. 3 SESTO-FINMA). In the past, FINMA noticed that in practice this exception had rarely been exploited. This is due to the fact that foreign regulators – apart from in a few cases – were not ready to issue proof of independence. It is now foreseen that for foreign collective investment schemes a separate definition of the independence required for the disclosure requirements will be included in the ordinance.
As part of this partial revision, it is also intended to introduce a more precise rule for reporting requirements where an exact threshold value is reached (Art. 11 SESTO-FINMA) as well as additional and specific procedural regulations (Art. 26 SESTO-FINMA). Moreover, FINMA advocates improving information for market players by enhancing the presentation of the notifications received on the publishing platforms provided for this purpose (Art. 23 SESTO-FINMA).
The consultation period for the partial revision of the SESTO-FINMA will run until 5 September 2011.
Contact
Tobias Lux, Media Spokesperson, phone +41 (0)31 327 91 71, tobias.lux@finma.ch
