B-16-02 FINMA Circ. 16/2

This year, the general meetings of public-interest companies meeting the criteria of Art. 964a para. 1 of the Swiss Code of Obligations will be asked to approve their reports on non-financial matters in accordance with Art. 964c para. 1 of the Swiss Code of Obligations. In this context, a controversy has arisen over the legal nature of the vote: on the one hand, Novartis and Roche have already organised a consultative vote, while on the other, the Ethos Foundation is[...]

In a recent ruling, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld an insurance company's refusal to cover losses of more than 35 million dollars suffered by a Swiss bank forced to compensate unhappy investors at the end of legal proceedings in Dubai (ruling 4A_440/2022 of 16 November 2023). A bank established in Switzerland has a subsidiary in Dubai, company E. The subsidiary is subject to supervision by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and is authorised to provide certain financial services,[...]

On December 8, 2023, the Federal Council published a Swiss Climate Scores Update, a (slight) update of the Swiss Climate Scores introduced in June 2022. Without making any major changes, the review of this rating system introduces two new features: a new (optional) indicator focusing on the portfolio's investment objectives, to determine the extent to which the portfolio is aligned with the Paris Agreement objective (i.e., to keep the global average temperature increase below 2 C° above pre-industrial levels, and[...]

On December 19, 2023, the Swiss Commission for Fair Trading (Commission) published a new guideline dated November 22, 2023 on the subject of environmental and/or climate-related advertising. Role of the Commission As a reminder, the Commission is an independent institution whose aim is to ensure the self-regulation of advertising communications. Anyone is entitled to lodge a complaint with the Commission concerning commercial communications which they consider to be unfair within the meaning of the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UWG).[...]