FINMA guide · 2 of 3
The FINMA warning list.
What it says. What it does not.
FINMA publishes a list of companies and individuals that may be carrying out activities requiring authorisation without being authorised. It is useful in a screening process, provided it is read the way FINMA presents it: as a signal to investigate, not a verdict on a person.
Contents
Three lists, three messages
On its “Warnings” page, FINMA maintains three lists that draw the attention of investors, creditors and policyholders to possible dangers in the financial market: the warning list, a list of final rulings released in line with Article 34 FINMASA, and a list of investigating agents acting for FINMA.1
These lists do not say the same thing. Where a company is in serious breach of regulatory provisions, FINMA can publish part or all of its final rulings once they come into force.1 The warning list, by contrast, rests on suspicions that FINMA could not clear up.
Who is on the warning list
“FINMA has investigated the companies and individuals on its warning list to see if they are providing unauthorised services. The findings, however, were inconclusive because the companies and individuals concerned did not comply with the requirement to provide information, or the information they provided was false.”
FINMA adds that providers are also entered in the list when its investigations reveal an imminent and considerable threat to investors, and that they are removed once FINMA has completed its investigations and taken any appropriate measures.2
The list can be searched by name on FINMA’s website and filtered by “Entered in commercial register” or “Not entered in commercial register”.2
What an entry does not say
- Not proof of unlawful activity. In FINMA’s words, being on the warning list “does not automatically mean that its activities are unlawful”; the entry highlights the lack of authorisation.2
- Not an enforcement ruling. Final rulings published under Article 34 FINMASA form a separate list.1
- Not an international sanctions list. Switzerland implements international sanctions through its Embargo Act or via anti-money laundering legislation3; SECO publishes the overall list of sanctioned individuals, companies and organisations.4
- Not exhaustive. FINMA states that the warning list “does not claim to be exhaustive and is not updated on a daily basis”: a provider without authorisation may not (yet) be on it.2 Being absent from the warning list is therefore no evidence of authorisation.
- Not the whole picture. FINMA can only act if it has territorial and material jurisdiction and concrete indications of a violation; it advises consulting other warning lists as well, such as those of the Cantonal Police of Zurich (cybercrimepolice.ch) or IOSCO (I-SCAN).2
An entry concerns only the entity described
An entry concerns the provider that FINMA describes, with its name, domicile, address and website. It says nothing about another company with a similar name.
What an entry contains
Each entry on the list links to a detail page on finma.ch. The diagram below shows its headings, without any real data.2
FINMA · Warning list · Detail page
- Date
- Shown at the top of the entry.
- Name
- As published: company name, brand or website name.
- Domicile
- May be empty (“-”).
- Address
- As published.
- Internet
- May be empty.
- Commercial register
- “Entered” or “Not entered in commercial register”.
- Remarks
- Any clarification by FINMA, or “-”.
What the entry says
- FINMA investigated without being able to clear up its suspicions, or suspects an imminent and considerable threat to investors.
- According to FINMA, the provider described lacks the required authorisation.
What it does not say
- That the activity is unlawful, or that a specific person committed a breach.
- That a company with a similar name is concerned.
- That a provider absent from the list is authorised.
Namesakes and unrelated companies
A similar name does not prove identity. A legitimate company may have a name close to an entry, and a provider may use a name that recalls a well-known institution without any link to it. For insurance intermediaries, FINMA explicitly advises checking whether the details match those in its public register.5
Before linking a counterparty to an entry:
- Open the entry’s detail page on finma.ch.
- Compare domicile, address and website with the known details of your counterparty.
- Check your counterparty’s UID in the UID Register and its legal name in Zefix.67 An entry “Not entered in commercial register” cannot be linked to a registered company on the strength of a name alone.
- Record your conclusion: match confirmed, ruled out, or uncertain and escalated for review.
In the OpenSwissData file
The warning list stays in files separate from the registry, and no authorised institution is flagged automatically because of a similar name: the registry field is_warning_listed stays empty.
Using the list in a screening process
When onboarding a client or partner, or during a periodic review, the warning list helps spot cases to examine. A careful approach:
- search for the full name, then for distinctive parts of it without the legal form, and for the website’s domain name;
- treat every result as a “candidate for review”, never as an automatic hit;
- check the list of authorised institutions and the published final rulings as well;
- repeat the search at regular intervals: FINMA adds entries and removes them after its investigations.2
For a one-off question, the free kyc_check tool of the MCP server searches a name in the registry and in the warning list. For whole lists, see the guide to automation.
The warning list in the OpenSwissData file
The FINMA file delivers the warning list separately from the registry, as finma_warnings.csv, .json, .sql and .parquet, and in the “Avertissements” sheet of the Excel workbook. Each row contains:
Scroll the table to see all columns
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
name | The name as published by FINMA. |
date_added | The date FINMA shows for the entry, as YYYY-MM-DD. |
category | The English label of FINMA’s filter, for example “Entered in commercial register”. |
source_url | The link to the entry’s detail page on finma.ch. |
warning_type | A constant value for this list. |
country | Empty in the current version. |
additional_info | The last segment of the detail page’s address. |
Domicile, address and website are not included: open the detail page to compare. The free CSV sample contains registry rows, not the warning list.
Working with the data
The FINMA registry as files.
The list of UIDs of authorised companies published by FINMA, as Excel, CSV, JSON, Parquet and SQL. An LEI is added when the UID matches exactly one LEI at GLEIF, the warning list stays in separate files, and every version is signed. One-time payment of CHF 299.
Official sources
The quotations and facts in this guide come from these pages, consulted on 29 September 2026. Only these sources are authoritative, and they may have changed since.
- FINMA · Public warnings issued by FINMAhttps://www.finma.ch/en/finma-public/warnungen/
- FINMA · Warning listhttps://www.finma.ch/en/finma-public/warnungen/warning-list/
- FINMA · Sanctions and FATF statementshttps://www.finma.ch/en/documentation/international-sanctions-and-combating-terrorism/
- SECO · Searching for subjects of sanctions and overall listhttps://www.seco.admin.ch/en/searching-for-subjects-sanctions
- FINMA · Register for insurance intermediarieshttps://www.finma.ch/en/supervision/versicherungsvermittler/registersuche/
- Federal Statistical Office (FSO) · The UID in generalhttps://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/registers/enterprise-register/enterprise-identification/uid-general.html
- Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) · Handelsregister, Zefix® und Regix (document in German)https://www.bj.admin.ch/de/handelsregister-zefix-und-regix