A dashboard for the financial centre
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The seventh robust decision, measurement, calls for an instrument. This book has repeatedly had to note the absence of data: on the language of client relationships, on Geneva’s share of sustainable investments, on the origin of the clientele by country. The umbrella organisations publish economic surveys and annual reports, the cantonal statistical office publishes employment and value-added data, and the National Bank publishes national banking statistics. What is missing, however, is a dashboard for the financial centre, published each year, which would bring these sources together and complement them.1 Such a dashboard would contain, for each of the seven variables, a few measurable indicators, of which the table below proposes a first list.
| Variable | Proposed indicators | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Geography of wealth | assets under management by origin of clientele; Switzerland’s share of cross-border wealth | financial centre survey; BCG |
| Regulation | cost of compliance per institution; authorisation lead times | financial centre survey; FINMA |
| Relationship with the Union | share of European staff; volume of European clientele served through subsidiaries | OCSTAT; financial centre survey |
| Technology | share of institutions applying the FINMA guidance on AI; tokenised volumes | FINMA; SIX; survey |
| Compliance | reports to MROS; enforcement proceedings; convictions | MROS; FINMA; Office of the Attorney General |
| Commodity trading | Geneva’s share of the value added of commodity trading; number of houses; jobs | FSO; Suissenégoce; OCSTAT |
| Human capital | jobs in the sector; cross-border workers; training courses delivered; vacancies | OCSTAT; ISFB; survey |
A dashboard is useful only if it is published, commented upon and tracked over time. Its annual publication by the umbrella organisations, with the support of the cantonal authorities and the training institutes, would give Geneva’s public debate on the financial centre the factual basis that popular votes, scandals and controversies make necessary. It would also give the institutions an instrument of comparison, and the federal authorities a view of what the Geneva financial centre represents, distinct from the Zurich financial centre.
Notes
- Office cantonal de la statistique (statistique.ge.ch): OCSTAT covers in particular employment, wages and cross-border workers, the economy (gross domestic product, economic accounts, business demography), money, banks and insurance, and publishes statistical bulletins, analyses and yearbooks. Fondation Genève Place Financière (geneve-finance.ch): annual charts on financial employment, banking employment and the typology of Geneva banks. Swiss Bankers Association, Banking Barometer 2025: national data by category of institution. Swiss National Bank, data portal (data.snb.ch): monthly and annual banking statistics. ↩
For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.