New rules hit Switzerland’s ‘Finance Valley’

Article reported that Switzerland was preparing sweeping new rules for its traditionally freewheeling hedge fund industry in the spring of 2012, in an overhaul that would unsettle money managers who had earlier departed the City of London for the promise of an easier regulatory regime in the alpine country.

The Swiss government has drafted amendments to laws that will make the country – once a byword for 'light-touch' oversight of asset management – into one of the most exacting jurisdictions in the world to run a hedge fund.

The regulations – which had been proposed by the Federal Council and would have to work their way through the Swiss parliament – were intended to bring Switzerland into line with the European Union’s own controversial new hedge fund regulations (AIFMD), but also to surpass them in key areas with a so-called 'Swiss finish'.

ESO: Background information: MEPs pledge to change hedge fund proposals http://www.europeansources.info/record/meps-pledge-to-change-hedge-fund-proposals/

ESO: Background information: European rules alarm fund managers http://www.europeansources.info/record/european-rules-alarm-fund-managers/

European Commission: DG Internal Market and Services: Investment funds: Alternative investments http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/investment/alternative_investments_en.htm

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