Enhanced Swiss market access to the UK: FAQs

Swiss firms will be able to register with the FCA (BFSA Registered Firms) to supply investment services from Switzerland to Eligible Clients (defined in question 2 below) without UK authorisation. The BFSA Regime is implemented through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 by providing exclusions from authorisation requirements under FSMA for Swiss firms carrying out the following regulated activities from Switzerland to specified client types: 

• dealing in investments as principal;
• dealing in investments as agent;
• arranging deals in investment;
• managing investments;
• safeguarding and administering investment;
• arranging safeguarding and administering investments;
• advising on investments; and
• agreeing to carry on specified kinds of activity.

These activities will be excluded when carried on in relation to financial instruments specified in Annex 5 of the BFSA. These include: transferable securities such as shares and bonds; money market instruments; collective investment schemes or alternative investment funds, including money market funds; and options, futures, swaps, forward rate agreements and any other derivative contracts which are financial instruments. 

Under the BFSA, Swiss firms can provide in-scope investment services to strictly defined client categories prescribed in the BFSA (Eligible Clients). Eligible Clients include both per se professional clients and eligible counterparties (each as defined under UK law) and a new category of sophisticated high net worth clients. 

A client will be a sophisticated high net worth client where it falls within one the following categories: 

• natural person who:
  • has net assets in excess of £2m;
  • in light of the services and the nature of the related transactions, is capable of making his or her own investment decisions and understanding the risk involved; and
  • has declared in writing in a stand alone document that he or she: 1) wishes to be treated as a High Net Worth Covered Client, as defined in the BFSA, in respect of a particular BFSA service; and 2) is aware that the protections and investor compensation rights normally available under the domestic law of the UK will not be available to him or her in respect of services and that they are aware of the consequences;
• a private investment structure with professional treasury operations, that is a structure which has at least one qualified expert with appropriate professional skills in financial matters to whom a natural person entrusts the principal responsibility for managing his or her assets on a continuous basis, and which acts for that natural person, where:
  • the natural person is a resident in the UK;
  • the natural person has net assets in excess of £2m;
  • the person authorised to carry out transactions on behalf of the private investment structure is capable of making investment decisions and understanding the risk involved for the natural person, in light of the services and the nature of the related transactions;
  • an officer of the private investment structure has declared in writing in a stand alone document that he or she is aware that the protections and investor compensation rights normally available under the domestic law of the UK will not be available to the private investment structure in respect of BFSA services provided by the BFSA Registered Firm and that it is aware of the consequences; and
  • an officer of the private investment structure has declared in writing in a stand alone document that he or she wishes the private investment structure to be treated as a High Net Worth Covered Client, as defined in the BFSA, in respect of a particular BFSA service; or
• a private investment structure, with no qualified expert with appropriate professional skills in financial matters, which acts for a natural person and through which the natural person will invest, where:
  • the natural person is a resident in the UK;
  • the natural person has net assets in excess of £2m;
  • the natural person is capable of making his or her own investment decisions and understanding the risk involved, in light of the services and the nature of the related transactions;
  • the natural person has declared in writing in a stand alone document that he or she is aware that the protections and investor compensation rights normally available under the domestic law of the UK will not be available to him or her in respect of BFSA services provided by a BFSA Registered Firm and that he or she is aware of the consequences; and
  • an officer of the private investment structure has declared in writing in a stand alone document that the private investment structure wishes to be treated as a High Net Worth Covered Client, as defined in the BFSA, in respect of a particular BFSA service.

Net assets are defined in the BFSA to include property, rights, entitlements or interests but exclude property which is the primary residence of a client or any money raised through a loan secured on that property as well as certain rights under a long-term contract of insurance.

A Swiss firm will be eligible to provide services under the BFSA Regime where it satisfies the following criteria: 

• it is incorporated under the domestic law in Switzerland. This means that Swiss branches of third country firms would not be able to use the BFSA Regime to provide services in the UK from Switzerland;
• it is authorised and supervised by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA) as a bank, securities firm, fund management company, manager of collective assets, or portfolio manager to supply the relevant BFSA services in Switzerland;
• FINMA, the Swiss regulator has informed the FCA that the firm meets the eligibility requirements and has good standing; and
• it is not authorised in the UK with permission to provide the services it wishes to provide through the BFSA Regime. 
   

UK firms will be able to supply certain wholesale insurance and reinsurance into Switzerland as well as investment services without supervisory authorisation from Swiss supervisory authorities. UK insurers can provide selected lines of non-life insurance business cross-border to large Swiss corporates without authorisation or local presence in Switzerland. Insurers must have no or limited life insurance business, employ staff with relevant knowledge of Swiss insurance legislation, and be subject to Solvency II regulatory requirements (unless they are a UK branch of a Swiss entity).

The FCA has also confirmed that for, insurance intermediaries, they do not need to notify the FCA of their intent to distribute insurance products in Switzerland, but must comply with requirements for pre-contractual and ad hoc disclosures to clients in accordance with the BFSA. 

The FCA has confirmed that professional client advisers acting on behalf of UK investment services firms will also no longer need to individually register with Swiss registration bodies to provide services whilst in Switzerland. Further information for UK firms will be available on FCA and FINMA websites in November 2025. 

Swiss firms will need to notify FINMA via the FINMA survey and application platform from the FINMA website. They will need to:

• provide their name, registration number, contact details and the services they wish to supply into the UK; and
• declare they meet the eligibility criteria (see question three above).

FINMA will then review the application and must confirm that the firm is eligible and of good standing to the FCA within 60 days.

Upon receipt of FINMA’s confirmation, the FCA will place the firm on its public BFSA register within 30 days, at which point the firm can begin supplying services in the UK. Firms will be notified once they've been added to the register.

The overseas persons exemption in Article 72 RAO the (OPE) will continue to be available to Swiss firms once the BFSA Regime comes into effect. However, Swiss firms must choose between access routes on an activity basis and cannot use both the OPE and the BFSA Regime simultaneously to provide the same service type.

This means that Swiss firms which register to provide services under the BFSA Regime will only be able to rely on the OPE to conduct activities that do not correspond to the services, categories of clients and financial instruments it wishes to provide under the BFSA Regime. 

The OPE permits the provision of some, but not all, of the investment services set out in the BFSA Regime and therefore there may be some circumstances where continued reliance on the OPE may be desirable. As the operation of the OPE depends on the particular regulated activity engaged, what is most suitable needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. 

Whilst there are similarities to the previous MiFID passporting regime available to UK and EU firms prior to Brexit, the regime is more limited. In particular: 

• it is only available for services provided from Switzerland, it does not provide for Swiss firms to establish a branch here (per the MiFID branch passporting regime for EU firms);
• the services can only be provided to Eligible Clients (see question three) above (whereas under the MiFID passporting regime, firms could provide services to all types of client, including retail clients); and
• the process is slower, taking up to potentially three months (compared to the MiFID services passport timings of one month). 
   

The eligibility requirements prevent Swiss firms from providing services under the BFSA Regime for which they have a permission for under Part IV FSMA. Where a Swiss firm has a UK licensed branch, any services provided under the BFSA Regime must be provided only from location in Switzerland and not from the UK branch. 

Swiss investment firms supplying services into the UK will still be supervised by the Swiss regulator and subject to domestic Swiss regulatory requirements. This means they will not be subject to the same FCA rules as UK authorised firms providing the same services. However, the FCA will be able to use its product intervention powers in respect of Swiss firms under the BFSA Regime in the same way as it does for UK authorised firms. These powers enable the FCA to take certain actions such as prohibiting firms from entering into specific agreements relating to financial products or imposing requirements that must be met before such agreements can be made.

Firms will also need to be mindful of the UK financial promotions regime to ensure that their communications and marketing fall within the new exemption under the FSMA (Financial Promotions) Order 2005 for BFSA services (or another exemption). This will mean taking care to ensure that communications are only directed at recipients which are Eligible Clients.  

Although the Government has committed to ensuring that the BFSA is fully implemented by the end of this year so firms can start registering to use BFSA Regime on 1 January 2026, there remains some uncertainty on precise timings. The FCA has published an implementation timetable which provides that:

• it will consult on FCA Handbook changes to implement the BFSA Regime in September 2025;
• detailed operational guidance will be published on both FCA and FINMA website in November 2025; and
• firms will be able to begin notifying their regulators from early 2026. 

Firms are able to confirm their interest in the BFSA regime and opt in to receive email updates regarding the regime now through signing this form on the FCA website. Firms which submit the form now will still need to submit a formal notification once the BFSA Regime comes into effect. 

Swiss firms that wish to provide investment services into the UK will need to assess the best route for accessing UK markets. This will require an analysis of the different options: providing services under the BFSA Regime; relying on the OPE; or establishing a UK branch that becomes authorised in the UK. Firms will need to carefully scope out the services they wish to provide as well as intended client types to determine the most appropriate option. 

Firms intending to use the BFSA Regime can begin preparing for implementation. This will involve updating their compliance and operational procedures to ensure that they stay within the perimeter of the BFSA Regime.