Switzerland hopes to overtake European rivals as a hub for financial technology with a licensing regime that would free companies in the sector from the regulatory burdens facing banks.
A specially created “fintech” licence would give the affluent Alpine country a unique advantage over rival financial centres, Swiss government officials and regulators believe.
“We want to create one tailor-made licence category for all kinds of innovative financial players — which is not something that has been done anywhere else in the world,” Mark Branson, chief executive of the Finma, the Swiss watchdog, told the Financial Times.
While Zürich and Geneva have a long history as financial centres, Swiss policymakers fear the country could lose out to rival cities such as Berlin and London in encouraging innovation in areas such as payment systems, virtual and crypto currencies, investment “robo-advising” and internet crowdfunding. [...]
While the UK is also experimenting with dismantling regulatory hurdles to encourage innovation, other European financial centres hope to attract young companies disillusioned by the UK vote to leave the EU, which could lead to restrictions on workers from other European nationalities.
Switzerland’s plans for a “fintech” licence were part of a package of measures approved by the Swiss cabinet on Wednesday, which also included plans to encourage crowdfunding and the market testing of new technologies. “We want in the future to belong to the most important financial centres in this sector,” Ueli Maurer, the Swiss finance minister, told journalists. [...]
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