From cantonal to federal supervision: the turning point of 2020

Federal primacy and the end of the fiduciario finanziario

When the Federal Council set 1 January 2020 as the date of entry into force of FinSA, FinIA and their ordinances, it also decided the fate of the cantonal financial fiduciary. Federal law now regulated portfolio management, investment advice and trusteeship comprehensively. Under the principle of the primacy of federal law (Art. 49 Cst.), cantonal rules on the same subject could no longer apply. The Supervisory Authority informed the profession in a communication issued after the Federal Council's decision of 6 November 2019 that "all investment advisers, portfolio managers and trustees acting on a professional basis" would no longer be subject to the LFid, and that the conflicting cantonal provisions would lapse immediately on 1 January 2020.¹ The currency exchange dealers (cambisti) remained under cantonal supervision, together with the commercial and real estate fiduciaries.

The legislative adaptation followed. After the Council of State had submitted its Message No. 7753 on 13 November 2019, the Commission on the Constitution and Laws reported on 5 October 2021. The commission explained that from 1 January 2020 the financial fiduciaries had become subject to the new federal rules, that the cantonal authorization regime for them should be deleted, and that the category of brokerage should also be removed because federal law now covered it. Currency exchange remained a cantonal category. The commission estimated that between 376 and 500 financial fiduciaries had moved under federal law and that about 1,200 commercial and real estate fiduciaries would remain on the cantonal register.² On 18 October 2021 the Grand Council adopted the revision by 74 votes to none with two abstentions. The president of the Supervisory Authority, Marco Bertoli, said that parliament had given priority to client protection and professional standards. The government announced an external expert review of possible further improvements to the law.³

What remained cantonal

The revision confirmed a dual system that is unique in Switzerland. A Lugano firm that keeps accounts, prepares tax returns and administers companies needs a cantonal authorization for the responsible fiduciario under Article 3 LFid. A firm that manages client portfolios on a commercial basis needs a FINMA licence under Article 17 FinIA. A firm that does both needs both. Many of the traditional Lugano fiduciary companies fall into this category. Their structure often reflects the new division: an asset management company licensed by FINMA and supervised by a supervisory organisation, and a sister company for accounting, tax and corporate services whose responsible persons hold cantonal authorizations.

The dividing line between the two regimes is not always obvious. The cantonal definition of the commercial fiduciary includes the administration of assets (amministrazione di patrimoni). The federal definition of portfolio management covers anyone who can dispose of client assets on a commercial basis in the name and on behalf of clients (Art. 17 para. 1 FinIA).⁴ A fiduciario commercialista who pays a client's bills from a bank account under a power of attorney performs an administrative act. If the same fiduciario decides which securities to buy for the client, he manages a portfolio and needs a federal licence once he exceeds the thresholds of commercial activity discussed in the next section. A fiduciario who acts as director of a domiciliary company holding bank accounts is a financial intermediary under Article 2 paragraph 3 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and must belong to a self-regulatory organisation, whether or not he also needs a FINMA licence.⁵

Notes

1. Autorità di vigilanza sull'esercizio delle professioni di fiduciario, Comunicazione concernente l'adeguamento della LFid, late 2019, https://m4.ti.ch/fileadmin/DI/DG/FIDUCIARI/COMUNICAZIONE_concernente_adeguamen to_LFid.pdf ("tutti i consulenti negli investimenti, i gestori patrimoniali e i trustees che agiscono a titolo professionale ... non saranno più assoggettati alla LFid"). ↩
2. Commissione Costituzione e leggi, Rapporto 7753 R of 5 October 2021 (above). ↩
3. Manna, laRegione, 18 October 2021 (above). ↩
4. LFid (above), Art. 3; Federal Act on Financial Institutions of 15 June 2018 (Financial Institutions Act, FinIA), SR 954.1, Art. 17 para. 1, consulted in the English and Italian versions on droit-bilingue.ch. ↩
5. Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 10 October 1997 (Anti-Money Laundering Act, AMLA), SR 955.0, Art. 2 para. 3, consulted on droit-bilingue.ch, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/en-it/9/95/955.0-2-5.html; the activity as an organ of domiciliary companies counts as financial intermediation under Art. 6 para. 1 let. d of the Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance of 11 November 2015 (AMLO), SR 955.01, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/9/95/955.01-6-9.html. ↩

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 August 2025.