Under current law, all financial service providers must join an ombudsman's office by December 25, 2020.
The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) is proposing to the Federal Council that the restriction on the obligation to join an ombudsman's office decided by parliament as part of the DLT Act come into force as early as 1 February 2021. As a result, only those financial service providers that provide financial services to private clients will now be required to join an ombudsman's office.
In order to prevent financial service providers who provide financial services exclusively to institutional or professional clients from having to join an ombudsman institution only to be exempted from this obligation again a few months later, the restriction of the affiliation obligation decided by Parliament is to be put into effect as soon as possible.
Since the expiration of the referendum period must first be awaited, this is February 1, 2021. The affiliation requirement for financial service providers that provide financial services exclusively to institutional or professional clients would contradict the clear intent of the legislature.
Therefore, it has been agreed with FINMA that FINMA will not enforce this obligation in the period between December 26, 2020 and January 31, 2021.
Source: Technical information from the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters