Cross Border Financial Services 

What is it all about?

Cross-border services have always been an important pillar of the Swiss banking industry. In the wake of the latest financial crisis, various countries have issued strict provisions for political, protectionist or fiscal motives in order to stay active on their financial markets. As a result, Swiss banks with international client bases see themselves confronted with a multitude of country-specific regulations.

Along with banks, insurers and asset managers must also fulfill their compliance obligations. The supervised institutions have been asked to implement a holistic cross border framework in order to minimize the respective risks (FINMA Position Paper & FAQ).

Your challenges?

• Legal- and reputational risks arise not only from supervision law but also from tax, civil (process) law, and anti-money laundering law.
• It is not sufficient to focus risk minimizing measures exclusively on asset management and investment advisory services. Wholesale and retail services also need to be taken into account.
• Generic country manuals alone are not enough to provide the employees with country specific know-how. A holistic cross-border framework consisting of an analysis, adequate measures, and tools as well as monitoring and sanction mechanisms are needed.
• The involvement of an external asset manager may include specific risks that also need to be identified and minimized (“Due Diligence”, “Know your Intermediary”).

Why KPMG?

• With its interdisciplinary team of bank and insurance auditors, lawyers, and IT specialists, KPMG guarantees the required know-how and experience to provide comprehensive assistance in all aspects of cross border issues.
• With our presence in over 140 countries, we are the ideal partner in identifying the effects of local regulatory requirements on your business model and in supporting you during the implementation of adequate measures that comply with these requirements.

Our cross border services:

Analysis and development of basis for decision-making

• Risk analysis for identification of the legal and reputational risks
• Preparation of appropriate principles for strategic decision-making (e.g. forgoing of certain target countries or client categories)

Implementation of Measures

• Internal Directives, Country Manuals
• Employee Training
• Setting up travel process
• Implementation of adequate processes and a holistic cross border control framework
• Definition of escalation processes

Monitoring

• Monitoring Compliance with Cross Border Framework
• Regular update of relevant concepts; sanctioning of breaches