Italy is a lucrative but notoriously difficult market for Swiss financial services providers. The financial regulator has pried the market open.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) has signed a cooperation agreement with the Italian supervisory authority CONSOB and the Banca d'Italia, Italy's central bank.
According to a Finma statement, the authorities are deepening their cooperation within the framework of their supervisory mandates in the financial market sector. The agreement specifically creates a formalized framework for cooperation and exchange of information in the supervision of financial institutions, it added. It's been notoriously difficult for foreign banks to break into the private banking business with wealthy Italians.
«Thanks to this agreement, the authorities involved can carry out their supervisory activities even more effectively across borders. This increases legal certainty for supervised institutions operating in Italy and Switzerland,» said Finma CEO Urban Angehrn.
Although the agreement creates legal certainty for financial institutions regarding their market access to Italy, it isn't legally binding.
