Amendment of the Collective Investment Schemes Act

In the areas of asset management and distribution, the Swiss fund location can be described as a major and serious competitor for other countries. As a production location for investment products, Switzerland is rather insignificant compared to other countries. This is mainly due to the lack of EU market access and Swiss tax law in combination with withholding and stamp duty. In addition, the legal framework abroad is often more attractive than in Switzerland. The Federal Council has addressed these problems and has now adopted a dispatch on 19 August 2020 to amend the Collective Investment Schemes Act.

The aim of this amendment is to create a new category of funds in Switzerland, which should offer qualified investors an alternative to foreign products. This fund category is exempt from the licensing and approval requirement and is called Limited Qualified Investor Fund (L-QIF). The L-QIF is not an independent new legal form of a collective investment scheme and can only have the legal form of an already existing legal form of Swiss collective investment schemes.

As mentioned above, the L-QIFs are exempt from the authorisation and licensing requirement. Furthermore, they are only intended for qualified investors, i.e. not for the general public. This is based on specific investment regulations. L-QIFs are also subject to supervision by FINMA. 

These changes aim to keep more collective investment schemes and one and a larger part of the value chain in Switzerland. This should strengthen the competitiveness of the Swiss fund center and reduce the disadvantages compared to countries with better framework conditions. However, this change can only be expected to come into force from 2022 onwards.