The new head of Switzerland’s financial regulator wants to tackle long-term strategic planning. Two of its most pressing projects are Facebook’s payments system and a Swiss digital asset exchange.
Six weeks into her new job presiding Finma, Marlene Amstad wants to tackle the next decade of Swiss finance, she said in an interview on Wednesday with Swiss daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German). The Swiss regulator spent more than ten years following the 2008/09 crisis on capital, liquidity, and clean-up, she noted.
By 2030, the alpine nation’s industry will be more digital, more sustainable, and «probably more characterized by Asia,» Amstad said. She noted that data is the common denominator of all three themes – and signaled that Finma taking note of the increasingly blurred lines between banking and fintech.
«Where does a software company end and a bank begin? Or the other way around? This is something we need to discuss internationally,» Amstad said. Her remarks come against the backdrop of a dramatically scaled-back payments project, Diem, backed by Facebook.
Fitness And Probity
The project has chosen to set itself up in a Geneva-based association, which means it falls under Finma’s purview. «Generally speaking, a Swiss license for a payments system can cover additional risks – even ones similar to banks – that a banking license could. This is often not the case elsewhere,» noted Amstad, who has sat of Finma's board since 2016.
Amstad declined to comment specifically on Diem, previously known as Libra. The 52-year-old economist – she is specialized in money, banking, and Chinese financial markets – signaled that Diem’s board and management are undergoing the same fitness and probity tests that Swiss bankers are given.
Academic Background
She didn’t comment on the suitability test for Ralph Hamers, the new CEO of UBS. The 54-year-old Dutch banker’s first three months in the job were marred by a money laundering investigation from his previous role, running ING.
Amstad's interview, her first since taking over chairing Finma last month, follows an interview by CEO Mark Branson three months ago, also to «NZZ» where he detailed the regulator's investigations into money laundering at Swiss banks (behind paywall, in German).
She also didn’t comment on SDX, a digital asset exchange spearheaded by Switzerland’s exchange operator SIX. Amstad, who took over presiding Finma on January 1, is a titular professor at the University of Bern, and taught in Shenzhen at the Chinese University of Hong Kong until last year.
