D-01-19

An asset manager who does not comply with the conservative investment strategy agreed with his client is not in breach of his contractual obligations if the client has validly approved the investments (Federal Court ruling 4A_507/2023 of 29 February 2024). In this judgment, the client consults an asset manager to manage part of his assets. Over the years, the client entered into three different management relationships with the service provider. In the third relationship, which gave rise to the dispute,[...]

In its decision 4A_350/2023 of 21 November 2023, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld a partial ruling by the Zurich Handelsgericht (HG190111-O), ordering an asset manager to account to a BVG/LPP pension fund for retrocessions received in connection with investments in target funds via two funds of funds. This commentary focuses on the question of the foundation's right to information regarding the retrocessions received by the fund manager (for a description of the facts and the issue of informed approval[...]

Members of the Board of Trustees must recuse themselves from all decisions in which they have a conflict of interest. Their knowledge cannot therefore be imputed to the foundation. This is one of the conclusions reached by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in ruling 4A_350/2023 of November 21, 2023. A securities dealer (now called a securities firm, cf. art. 41 LEFin) provides asset management services for private and institutional clients. In particular, it manages the assets of a BVG pension[...]

In a recent ruling, a bank manager was unsuccessful in his bid to obtain back pay, when he demanded a recalculation of his bonus based on assets under management that he claimed to have contributed to his employing bank (TF 4A_519/2022 of October 12, 2023). The facts were as follows: in 2009, a manager had organized a meeting between a business introducer, whom he knew, and a member of a bank's executive committee. Shortly afterwards, a second meeting was organized[...]