Switzerland's financial watchdog reported a sharp rise in enforcement activity during 2025, concluding 55 proceedings against institutions and individuals — a 45% increase over the 38 cases closed in 2024.
The shift reflects what the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority called a strategy of "early identification," designed to detect and neutralize risks before they escalate into systemic failures. The regulator adopted a "zero tolerance" stance toward operational and capital lapses in the aftermath of Credit Suisse's 2023 collapse, signaling that the era of quiet resolution for domestic failures was over.
"The volatile environment intensified in 2025 and led to increased financial and non-financial risks," FINMA stated in its annual report.
Inspection activity surged alongside enforcement. FINMA conducted 113 bank inspections across the sector in 2025, with UBS — Switzerland's sole remaining global banking powerhouse — accounting for 42 of those visits, averaging roughly one site visit every eight days. The authority also carried out 43 insurance audits and 20 asset management reviews.
Consumer protection enforcement expanded as well. FINMA launched 450 investigations into unauthorized entities operating in Switzerland and added more than 300 new entries to its public Warning List targeting rogue investment providers and scammers.
The regulator's workload has prompted a hiring expansion, with headcount rising from 554 full-time positions in 2024 to 617 in 2025. Despite the growth, FINMA confirmed it expects staffing to remain in the three-digit range in the near term.
Transparency remains a constraint. FINMA operates under restrictive legal requirements that limit its ability to actively communicate enforcement outcomes, with courts frequently barring the authority from naming or shaming sanctioned entities — a structural limitation that draws scrutiny in a market where Bern-based regulators face persistent anxiety over the "too big to fail" designation.
Beyond banking, FINMA oversees approximately 10,000 insurance intermediaries, reinforcing its broad mandate across Switzerland's financial ecosystem as market conditions test both institutional resilience and regulatory capacity.
