Expert and effective advice from specialists in all areas of banking, finance, and fintech

Compliance, in particular adherence to the provisions of anti-money laundering legislation, is essential for all financial market participants. We have proven and long-standing expertise in advising domestic and international clients on the analysis of their business models and the fulfilment of legal and regulatory requirements, including affiliation with self-regulatory organisations.

Our specialists also provide support and advice, working in interdisciplinary teams, on sensitive and strategic issues in the areas of compliance, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, sanctions, regulatory misconduct, criminal offences by employees, breaches of data security or banking secrecy, bribery and kickbacks, insider trading and market manipulation, competition and antitrust law, and cybercrime. We conduct internal investigations and special audits.

Our practice team plays a leading role in advising companies in the field of asset management. This applies in particular to authorisation procedures, restructuring and regulatory issues relating to fund management companies, asset managers, custodian banks, distributors, platforms, and outsourcing providers. In addition, we have extensive experience in advising on the issuance and listing of derivatives and structured products based on a wide variety of underlying assets.

Our practice team is one of the market leaders in the field of collective investment schemes/investment funds in Switzerland. We advise Swiss and foreign clients on the structuring of Swiss and foreign collective investment schemes and on the authorisation of foreign collective investment schemes for distribution in Switzerland. The funds structured and launched with our support include regulated and unregulated funds in the areas of private markets (private equity, private debt), infrastructure, real estate, hedge funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and crypto funds.

Several members of the fund team are recognised as issuer representatives of the SIX Swiss Exchange and assist and represent fund promoters in the primary or secondary listing of funds, particularly ETFs, on the SIX Swiss Exchange. We also offer support in selecting suitable service providers in Switzerland, in distribution activities in Switzerland and abroad, and in the tax treatment of various fund structures. Thanks to a large client base, our practice team is in regular contact with the Swiss financial market regulator FINMA and the Swiss Investment Fund Association (AMAS). We are therefore well informed about upcoming changes in legislation and the regulator’s practices.

Thanks to our many years of experience in asset management, we possess detailed expertise in financial services such as asset management, investment advice, and the provision of financial instruments. We regularly work with all types of asset managers, trustees, fund management companies, and securities firms, and can offer practical and pragmatic support in this area. Through our online platform, FIDLEG Solution, we offer cost-effective solutions for FINMA authorisation and supervision by a supervisory organisation, particularly for small and medium-sized asset managers and trustees.

We advise Swiss and foreign clients on all types of financing, such as loans, syndicated loans, project finance, structured finance and financial derivatives.

Leasing plays a special role in our firm. Many years of experience in this field, regular publications and leading roles in industry associations form the basis for first-class advice.

In the area of payment systems, our clients can rely on an interdisciplinary team of experts. We are not only familiar with the regulatory, civil and data protection frameworks for issuers, acquirers, and schemes, but also with the latter’s rules and regulations, drawn from many years of practical experience. We also support technical service providers in the field of payment systems, for example with the legal and regulatory analysis of their business models.

Fintech plays a central role in Kellerhals Carrard’s practice. We support projects relating to digitalisation, artificial intelligence, blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT), ICO, tokens and data policy at every stage, from the assessment and implementation of regulatory requirements through contractual structuring to the design of internal processes. Many years of advisory experience in this field, regular publications, and leading roles in industry associations form the basis for first-class advice to both established companies and start-ups in the financial sector.

Through the involvement of specialists from our team in expert and working groups of the Federal Administration, we remain up to date with the latest developments, thereby ensuring that we provide our clients with cutting-edge and sustainable advice.

In this context, our clients can also count on the highest level of expertise in the legal analysis of projects at the interface between technology and financial services. In addition to the expert support of the firm’s lawyers specialising in areas such as the Start-up Desk or tax, capital markets, corporate and insolvency law, our team also benefits in particular from specialists in other fields such as economics or IT/software systems.