Swiss Federal Banking Commission Examines E-Banking System

Ulrika Lomas, Tax-news.com, Brussels

04 January 2001

The Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC), an independent administrative authority of the confederation responsible for supervising the Swiss banking sector, investment funds, mortgage bonds, stock exchanges and security dealers, has said it intends to carefully monitor the progress of online banking in Switzerland and will focus more attention on two of the country's most powerful banking institutions.

In a Swiss news agency interview the SFBC Deputy Director, Andreas Bühlmann, confirmed that a working group has been established to study the difficulties of online banking. In particular, the group is examining the process of opening a bank account online with regard to the "know your customer" rules which are integral to the Swiss banks' Code of Conduct.

Mr Bühlmann explained that the difficulty of e-banking lies within its very nature in that it pays no heed to international boundaries with resulting problems of identification and customer relations. Arising from the study, added Mr Bühlmann, is the clear need to modify some of the articles in the Swiss banks' Code of Conduct which not only govern domestic regulations but will also provide for further amendments with regard to international standards.

Mr Bühlmann also announced that closer surveillance of the operations of Switzerland’s two largest financial services groups, Credit Suisse and UBS, will take place. Currently, SFBC employs a workforce of 11 people who perform surveillance on the two institutions but plans are afoot to implement two teams, one for each of the big banks.

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