Swiss FinfraG, FinMIA

Understand, validate and oversee FinfraG reporting with confidence

Switzerland has two primary reporting obligations which sit under the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FinMIA/ FinfraG) which requires firms to report transactions in both derivatives and securities, to an authorised trade repository. SIX is unique in that it is the only FINMA approved domestic trade repository and therefore firms must send transaction reports to SIX either directly or via an ARM.

For firms in scope, the challenges differ between the two reporting’s. For article 39 the challenge lies in identifying the correct securities that are in scope, whereas for article 104, the biggest challenge lies in determining the reporting party due to the single-sided nature of the reporting and the Swiss hierarchy.

Article 104: FinfraG Reporting

Article 104 mandates firms under the Swiss Financial Market Infrastructure Act to report derivative transactions to an approved trade repository and is the equivalent of EMIR under Swiss law. The Swiss framework was introduced as part of Switzerland’s response to post-crisis market infrastructure reforms and applies to OTC and exchange-traded derivatives in scope under the regime.

Article 104: Who is required to report?

The Swiss reporting model is distinctive because the reporting obligation is single-sided, with a tiered hierarchy under Article 104 FinfraG to determine which party must report. That makes reporting-party determination a core operational control issue due to firms needing to interpret the reporting party using the hierarchy model, similar to EMIR.

Article 104 applies to companies with a registered office in Switzerland that fall within the reporting perimeter under the Swiss regime. This includes foreign branches of Swiss registered firms and intra-group transactions for both financial counterparties and non-financial counterparties.

Article 104: What must be reported?

The reporting requires firms to submit all reportable derivative transactions to an approved trade repository. This includes every event of the transaction lifecycle like modifications, terminations as well as positions and valuations. Products considered as derivatives include FX Swaps and forwards, whilst out of scope products include structured products like certificates or Securities lending and borrowing.

Transactions details to be reported include:

• Party identifiers

• Transaction economics

• Lifecycle details

• UTI and related identifier logic

• Reconciliation-relevant fields across the full report

• Product identification

Reporting deadlines

Every event on the transaction needs to be reported within T+1 deadline.

Delegated reporting under Article 104:

Operationally, firms may rely on repository support or third-party services. However, the obligation remains on the firm obligated to report using the Swiss hierarchy. Delegation therefore does not remove the need to understand, and evidence correct reporting-party logic. Firms must identify their financial status, size and direction to correctly understand obligations.

Article 39: FinfraG Reporting

Article 39 and the Circular: Duty to report clearly mandates all trading venue participants (Article 34) and to all other Swiss and foreign securities firms (article 41/57) to report transactions directly to the approved trade repository SIX or via an ARM. The Swiss obligation is similar to that of MIFIR as similar concepts of ToTV and uTOTV exist albeit with different trading venue scopes.

Article 39: Who is required to report?

The obligation mandates all participants of a trading venue, until their authorisation ends. Each individual transaction by a participant in the transaction chain, from order generation to forwarding and execution must be reported (incl. Remote booking and transmission of order).

Article 39: Reportable transactions:

Both securities and derivatives as defined in Article 2 FINMIA that have been traded on a trading venue in Switzerland are in scope for reporting, including standardized derivatives like ETDs, ETCs and ETNs. Derivatives must exceed a 25% weighting of reportable underliers to be considered as reportable.

Article 39: Exemptions

1) Transactions executed outside Switzerland in Swiss securities and in derivatives with Swiss securities as their underlyings

2) Transactions executed outside Switzerland in foreign securities and in derivatives with foreign securities as their underlyings

3) Exercise of conversion rights and warrants, standardised derivatives, warrants, structured products, convertible preferred shares, OTC options,

4) Issue and redemption of fund units

5) Transactions in ADRs where underlying share does not have a primary listing on a trading venue in Switzerland.

6) Repos, securities lending / borrowing, collateral

Consequences of non-compliance

FinfraG reporting failures create regulatory, operational and reputational risk, particularly where firms cannot evidence correct reporting-party determination, scope analysis and repository submission quality.

For firms in scope, the expectation is clear: Swiss derivatives reporting must be accurate, timely and supported by a defensible control framework.

How En:ACT helps with FinfraG reporting oversight

En:ACT helps firms strengthen control over their FinfraG reporting obligations by ingesting raw transaction data from any source system, performing books and records reconciliation, and assessing 100% of transactions and fields against the applicable Swiss reporting rules.

Using transparent, regulator-linked logic, the platform identifies:

• reporting-side hierarchy issues

• field-level errors

• eligibility issues

• cross-field inconsistencies

• missing or invalid identifiers

• lifecycle reporting gaps

• reporting anomalies

Each identified issue is linked directly to the specific FinfraG rule breached, giving firms a clear view of what is wrong, why it matters and where remediation is required.

En:ACT also ensures rules are kept up to date to reflect developments across:

• regulatory text

• regulator guidance

• consultation papers

• relevant industry papers

For FinfraG specifically, that means firms benefit from rule coverage maintained in line with the Swiss legal framework and the Swiss trade repository operating model.

Specialist FinfraG expertise from the Novatus Intelligence team

Our FinfraG capability is supported by specialists within the Novatus Intelligence team, including SMEs with backgrounds across banking, asset management, product and regulation.

For FinfraG specifically, that means access to specialists who understand the Swiss hierarchy model, trade repository submission controls and practical cross-border reporting challenges under the Swiss framework.

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Common FinfraG reporting challenges

Some of the most common FinfraG reporting issues include:

• Incorrect determination of the reporting party

• Over or under reporting of eligible instruments

• Weak counterparty classification

• Poor treatment of cross-border trades

• Weak UTI governance

• Poor source-to-report reconciliation

• Limited oversight of repository submissions

In many cases, the issue is not one bad field. It is a mismatch between the derivative as booked, the side that should report under the Swiss hierarchy and the final repository record.

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Why firms choose En:ACT for FinfraG oversight

Firms use En:ACT because it gives them more than a validation tool. It provides a control framework around Swiss derivatives reporting.

With En:ACT, firms can:

• test reporting quality against transparent rule logic

• reconcile source data to reported data

• identify issues before they become regulatory problems

• evidence correct reporting-party determination

• benchmark reporting quality over time

• prepare for regulatory change with greater confidence

The result is stronger reporting assurance, better governance and a clearer line of sight from raw transaction data to trade repository submission quality.

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