The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has decided to allow securities dealers to make their own choices about which reporting office they want to notify about off-exchange securities transactions.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has decided to allow securities dealers to make their own choices about which reporting office they want to notify about off-exchange securities transactions. The consequence redrafting of FINMA Circular 2008/11 is, according to the regulator, designed to make securities trades more 'transparent' and thereby protect high-net-worth and other investors from sharp practice.

"Apart from on-exchange securities trading, exchanges must be able to monitor off-exchange securities transactions that have been admitted to trading. The exchanges would not be able to adequately comply with this requirement if they were not notified about such transactions," it said.

Off-exchange securities transactions must be reported to one of the exchanges authorised by FINMA, if those securities are admitted for trading on a Swiss exchange. If the securities are admitted for trading on more than one exchange, the securities dealers concerned can choose the exchange to which they want to report the transactions. This has been set out in the FINMA Ordinance on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading (SESTO-FINMA). All exchanges in Switzerland need a licence from FINMA. These are: SIX Group; SIX Swiss Exchange; Scoach Schweiz; Eurex; and BX Berne eXchange.