After it became public in the past few days that various executives are leaving the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, there's another significant departure.

The overstretching of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) is becoming increasingly obvious. After almost ten years of working for the authority, Johanna Preisig the former head of the Strategic Foundations division, is leaving to pursue a career outside Finma, according to a press release Thursday.

Stressful Times

Preisig's departure comes immediately after Tamedia Group newspapers reported a staff exodus at Finma (in German, behind paywall). Earlier this month, Finma managing director Urban Angehrn announced his resignation effective at the end of the month. More resignations followed. Angehrn justified his retirement after almost two years with health consequences due to recent stressful times.

Finma Secretary General Edith Honegger and a high-ranking staff member working in international cooperation are said to have left the authority, with other key staff members also leaving, according to the report.

Radical Criticism

In addition, a long-standing communications staffer is said to have given notice. Although not on the executive board, he attends its meetings, the article continued. Finma and the Finance Ministry declined to comment to Tamedia newspapers.

The regulator has been in trouble lately, mainly because of Credit Suisse, and is facing accusations it intervened too late and indecisively. That's on top of earlier criticism that the authority isn't sufficiently and competently staffed.

Lack of Competence to Act

Financial insiders repeatedly criticized the allegedly insufficient cooperation between Finma and the Swiss National Bank (SNB). As a consequence of the apparent failure in the Credit Suisse proceedings, Finma recently announced it would expand its resources for bank supervision. Some 22 people will now be directly in charge of UBS supervision, the Swiss news agency «AWP» reported.

Finma has been criticized for its lack of authority to act, especially since it cannot impose fines. It's only empowered to confiscate profits, impose professional bans, and demand organizational adjustments at financial institutions.