FINMA backs Swiss consultation drafts that would widen its enforcement powers

On 12 August 2026 the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority published a statement welcoming the Federal Council’s consultation drafts for the legislative package that strengthens the too-big-to-fail framework. The drafts would implement the measures within the Banking Act and the Liquidity Ordinance. They are consultation drafts, which means they are open for feedback rather than in force.

The package is a mix of preventive and disciplinary instruments. It would allow more public communication about concluded enforcement proceedings, introduce an accountability regime, permit proportionate corrective measures where a breach is imminent rather than only after it has occurred, add the power to impose fines, widen the resolution options available in a crisis, and set liquidity of last resort preparatory requirements for larger banks.

FINMA describes the drafts as key to strengthening banking stability and the reputation of the Swiss financial centre, and says it is important that the measures now proposed are implemented as a comprehensive package in order to achieve the greatest possible impact. The authority first requested new statutory powers in early 2022 and has argued for them publicly since, and the same recommendations appear in the Federal Council’s too-big-to-fail report and in the parliamentary investigation committee’s report on the Credit Suisse crisis.

Two of the proposed instruments turn on evidence rather than on capital. An accountability regime asks who was responsible for a decision. A corrective measure aimed at an imminent breach asks what a firm knew, and when it knew it.

Both questions are answered from files. A record showing what was decided, by whom and on what date keeps that answer out of the realm of recollection.