Kellerhals Carrard on digital assets in Swiss banking: the Blockstories report
Digital assets are becoming an increasingly important part of Swiss banking. A clear and predictable regulatory framework is central to that development.
Blockstories' report on digital assets in Swiss banking brings together perspectives from senior representatives of UBS, PostFinance, Swissquote, LUKB, AMINA and Sygnum, alongside a legal and regulatory perspective from Prof. Dr. Cornelia Stengel.
Her central observation:
"Switzerland's real advantage was regulatory architecture, not light-touch regulation."
The report also considers how early token classifications and direct supervisory dialogue helped make regulatory implications around licensing, custody and AML more predictable.
Preserving Switzerland's position calls for active engagement with the evolving framework. This includes the ongoing legislative process on the proposed amendment to the Financial Institutions Act, which would introduce new licences for payment instrument institutions and crypto-institutions, as well as a framework for stablecoin issuance by payment instrument institutions.
It also includes broader initiatives such as the external working group on optimising financial market regulation established by the FDF and supported by the SIF. Kellerhals Carrard's Banking, Finance & Fintech team is actively contributing its expertise to the legislative debate and the wider discussion on regulatory optimisation.