Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority

Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the most respected regulatory organization in Europe that has managed to reinforce a significant amount of trust among wealthy forex traders and investors from all over the world. 

FINMA has been granted exclusive powers by the Swiss Government to act as a regulatory watchdog for different types of financial firms that include stock exchanges, stock brokers, forex brokers, banks, insurance companies, securities dealers, fund managers, and any other kind of entity that deals in the financial markets. FINMA’s regulatory framework is designed in such a way that only established and mainstream forex brokers can offer brokerage services under the FINMA license. 

Therefore, FINMA forex brokers are required by law to be registered as banks, which require a higher amount of operating capital and more restrictions on how they function in the markets. FINMA regulated brokers are also expected to follow the best practices in brokerage services that are devoid of any manipulation or fraudulent practices.

1.Safety of Client Funds：

FINMA requires that clients deposited assets, including forex deposits, must be fully segregated. The clients funds under FINMA-regulated forex brokers are guaranteed.

2. Requirement on Forex Brokers' Initial Capital:

All FINMA forex applicants meet the capital requirement: fully paid-up minium capital of CHF 10 million.

3.Requirement on Forex Brokers' Reports：

FINMA supervised forex brokers are asked to provide audit report and anti-money laundering report to FINMA.

Generally speaking, FINMA-regulated broker profile will be found at the Licensed Institutions and Persons Page of FINMA. Check if the broker profile published on FINMA matches the info from the broker website.

The detailed steps are as below:

1. Find the name of the forex broker, which you can get from the broker's website; 

2. Enter the name into the search bar and choose 'Category'  as 'Banks and securities firms' on 

https://www.finma.ch/en/finma-public/authorised-institutions-individuals-and-products/  ;

3. And you'll get the broker's information on FINMA website. At this time you will check if the broker be authorised as bank; If no, please keep away the broker because it's unauthorized to provide forex trading service.

When you have disputes with a FINMA-regulated broker (bank) , you can proceed the following ways:

1st way: The recommended way is to contact the broker (bank) directly and discuss with them to find a solution.

2nd way: If the response was not what you were hoping for, you have the following options:

● Contact the Swiss Banking Ombudsman

You can either send the complaint by post: Schweizerischer Bankenombudsman, Bahnhofplatz 9, P.O. Box, 8021 Zurich Switzerland or make an online complaint form and submit it: 

Complaint Documents by Post: https://bankingombudsman.ch/en/written-enquiries/

Online Complaint Form: https://bankingombudsman.ch/en/written-enquiries/ 

Authorisation Form: https://bankingombudsman.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Eingabeformular2021_EN.pdf  

● You can also contact FINMA. Outline precisely what the problem is and what has happened so far. If the broker has set out its position, please enclose their response with your complaint to FINMA.

You can either send the complaint to the email: info@finma.ch or make an online complaint form and submit it.

Online Complaint Form: https://www.finma.ch/en/finma-public/reporting-information/ 

3rd way: If the 2 ways above can't solve the dispute, the last way is to issue a case to the court in Switzerland.