What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

I have been involved in a strategic merger and acquisition process, where our bank did acquire an external asset manager, and was also involved in restructuring both the legal and compliance departments of our bank, leading to a successful reorganisation of the internal processes, activities and responsibilities of both the legal and compliance functions.

Concerning litigations, I have been involved in legal proceedings related to an important international Money laundering case, which concerned several Swiss banks.

What impact did Brexit have on the financial Industry in Switzerland?

From my personal view and experience, I do not see or experience any impact of Brexit. However, from a general Swiss point of view, Brexit had both negative and positive effects. The negative effect is that the workings of the European Union were upset by Brexit, and, it therefore adopted a very stringent line of conduct toward Switzerland in the negotiation of the constitutional agreement discussion. The EU clearly did not want to be kind with countries that were not part of the EU and wanted Switzerland to know it, in order not to experience another Brexit-like situation. The positive situation is that Switzerand is not alone anymore in the specific situation of being tightly-knit with EU but not being a member. Now, to a certain extent, the UK and Switzerland can “join forces” concerning some aspects of discussion and agreement negotiation with the EU.

Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

For a couple of years now, we have seen an increasing number of claims from the local authorities against banks’ responsibles and, in particular, against legal and compliance managers, based on the fact that they supposedly did not comply with their obligation of reporting suspicious transactions or clients to the Money Laundering Reporting Office. This is a very frustrating and dangerous situation; legal and compliance employees are in fact working on behalf of the authorities and public prosecutor and can get themselves prosecuted if they make the smallest mistake or are not reactive enough. This leads to the current situation, where heads of legal and compliance do not take the time to assess a situation and make a risk assessment, but immediately proceed with an announcement because they fear the consequences of not doing so immediately. This is very detrimental to the end clients whose name and details are disclosed to the authorities without any real reason every time there is the slightest doubt.