FINMA

FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, is Switzerland's integrated financial regulator, overseeing banks, insurers, exchanges and securities institutions from Bern. Created in 2009 by merging three predecessor agencies, it operates independently of the federal government and funds itself through fees levied on the firms it supervises. Its significance for forex traders is structural: Switzerland regulates retail FX providers as banks, so a firm offering margin foreign-exchange trading to the public needs a banking licence and faces the corresponding capital and audit regime — a higher bar than most jurisdictions apply. Client cash consequently sits with an institution covered by Swiss depositor-protection arrangements. FINMA's enforcement toolkit includes licence withdrawal, industry bans and disgorgement of profits, and its public register lets traders verify whether a provider claiming Swiss regulation actually holds authorisation.