How to check whether a firm
is authorised by FINMA.

A sound check follows four steps. The next sections explain each of them, with the official sources.

FINMA points out that many financial services in the Swiss market require authorisation, which in most cases it grants itself: for instance to manage clients’ money or take money from investors, to underwrite insurance policies, or to set up and manage a collective investment scheme.1

“To check whether an individual, a company or a financial product has been authorised, you can search for the name here.”

The same page offers downloadable lists by category, each showing its date of last modification. In addition, FINMA provides “as a service” the available business identification numbers (UID) of authorised companies.1

Authorisation does not bring the same supervision everywhere. According to FINMA, it “can range from intensive, ongoing supervision to a simple act of registration”; under certain circumstances, providers must instead join a private self-regulatory organisation.1

The type of provider determines where to look. The table follows the categories as FINMA presents them. The last column shows whether the category appears in FINMA’s list of UIDs for authorised companies, which the OpenSwissData file is based on.2

Financial intermediaries that fall under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) through membership of an SRO are found with the SRO member search. FINMA states that it cannot guarantee the completeness or accuracy of this data, which is updated regularly from information provided by the SROs, usually within two to five working days.4

FINMA’s lists are regularly updated. FINMA itself warns, however, that they can lag behind in both directions:

“A supervised institution may have been authorised but not yet be included in the list. Similarly, a supervised institution may still feature on the list even though it has lost its authorisation.”

An entry is therefore strong evidence as of the list date, not a real-time guarantee. A missing entry calls for further checks, not for a conclusion. There are several possible explanations:

• A different name. The provider trades under a brand or business name while the list uses another designation. Search for the exact legal name, then for a distinctive part of it.
• A different register. Insurance intermediaries have their own register, and financial intermediaries affiliated with an SRO are found through the SRO member search.1
• An activity that does not require FINMA authorisation. Since 1 August 2017, for example, companies may under certain conditions accept deposits of up to CHF 1 million without authorisation (the “sandbox”); they are then not supervised by FINMA and there is no depositor protection for these deposits.5
• A lag in the list, in either direction, as FINMA describes above.

If in doubt, FINMA gives an address and a hotline on the same page for asking whether a provider holds the necessary authorisation.1

A name can be shared, translated or misspelt. An identifier designates a single entity, so it is the first thing to match.

The UID

According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), every company active in Switzerland is given a unique and unchangeable business identification number (UID). It is made up of “CHE” and nine randomly allocated digits; both CHE123456789 and CHE-123.456.789 are allowed. The suffix sometimes shown after the number (HR, MWST or both) is not part of the UID.7

The UID Register is kept by the FSO, and some of its data is available to the public7; its online search takes a name or a UID.8 For the legal name and registered office recorded in the commercial register, the central business name index Zefix, updated daily, answers individual queries.9

Not every row in FINMA’s UID list has a UID: FINMA refers to the “available” numbers.1 A company may also appear on several rows, one per authorisation type.2

The LEI

The LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) is a 20-character alphanumeric code based on the ISO 17442 standard and administered by GLEIF.10 FINMA’s UID list contains no LEI: it gives the name, the city, the authorisation type in German, French, Italian and English, and the UID.2

The status of an LEI describes its registration, not the FINMA authorisation. “LAPSED” means a registration that has not been renewed by its due date and whose entity is not known by public sources to have ceased operation.11 A lapsed LEI therefore says nothing about the authorisation.

A useful check can be reviewed later. For each one, it is sensible to record:

• the date and the source: the FINMA page or list, with its date of last modification;
• the name and identifier searched for;
• the result, the authorisation type found and the conclusion drawn;
• any further steps: UID Register, Zefix, question put to FINMA.

This list is a way of working, not a regulatory requirement: your obligations depend on your activity and your internal framework.

Checking one name by hand is easy. For hundreds of counterparties, or to repeat the check at regular intervals, the guide to automation shows how to match a list by UID, then LEI, then name.

The OpenSwissData FINMA file takes FINMA’s UID list, adds the LEI when the UID matches exactly one LEI at GLEIF, and keeps the warning list in separate files. The CSV sample lets you examine the format without an account.