Ongoing supervision
The task of a supervisory organisation is to examine on an ongoing basis whether portfolio managers and trustees are complying with the financial markets legislation to which they are subject, including in particular the FinIA, the AMLA [Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act], the FinSA and the CISA [Swiss Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes].
In order to exercise its supervisory powers, the supervisory organisation may carry out audits itself of operators subject to its supervision or arrange for this to be done by an auditing company approved by it.
When carrying out an ordinary audit of operators subject to its supervision, OSFIN may choose to involve auditing companies previously approved by it. More specifically, operators subject to OSFIN supervision undertake to instruct an approved auditing company to carry out an audit within the prescribed period, i.e. before 30 June of each year. The auditing company will invoice the operator subject to supervision directly for the costs of the audit.
OSFIN may extend the frequency of audits to once at most every four years, depending upon the activities of the operator subject to supervision and the corresponding risks. During years in which no period audit is carried out, portfolio managers and trustees draw up a report for the attention of OSFIN concerning the compliance of their activities with legal requirements using a standardised form.
As regards the content of the audit, FINMA stipulates the principles applicable to audits carried out by supervisory organisations, sample checks and the rating system. OSFIN refers to these in their entirety.
Under special circumstances, in particular in the event of any suspected infringement or unrectified irregularities, OSFIN may decide to carry out other supervisory action in relation to the operator subject to supervision (checks in situ, supervisory meetings and escalation to FINMA).
For more information, please refer to our supervisory concept.
Approval
OSFIN grants approval to auditing companies and to lead auditors that wish to carry out an audit of an operator subject to supervision. The conditions governing approval are laid down by Articles 13 and 14 OOS [Swiss Ordinance on Supervisory Organisations] (Article 16 OOS for transitory provisions).
A lump-sum charge of CHF 1,000.00 will be invoiced to the auditing company for the examination of applications (no surcharge for the approval of lead auditors).
In addition, a lump-sum charge of CHF 500.00 will be invoiced once per year to each auditing company in order to cover costs relating to supervision of the company and for updating its file. No lump-sum supervisory charge will be invoiced for the years 2020-2021.
