Financial Services Act (FinSA)

The Federal Financial Services Act («FinSA») has been in force since January 1, 2020 and focuses on improving client protection and transparency within Switzerland. FinSA and its ordinance («FinSO») apply to cases where financial services are provided in Switzerland and/or to clients resident in Switzerland. Among other things, Robeco Schweiz AG and also Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. («We») are subject to certain obligations, such as the segmentation of our clients and certain conduct obligations.

In this context, we hereby provide certain information to our clients (and to those for whom this may be of interest) in order to comply with our regulatory obligations.

You may access and download our Information Guideline by clicking on this link. The guideline will provide you with all important information about Robeco Schweiz AG, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. as well as details about the financial services and instruments offered.

Further below you will find more information about the different client segments as well as the possibilities to switch within these segments (opting-in and opting-out).

What are the client segments?

The following overview shows the different customer segments and also the respective level of customer protection:

Client segment	Client protection level
Private/retail client : clients who are not professional clients (see art. 4 para. 2 FinSA)	The financial service provider must fully comply with the conduct provisions pursuant to FinSA.
Professional client: a) Public-law entities with professional treasury operations; b) occupational pension schemes with professional treasury operations and other occupational pension institutions providing professional treasury operations; c) companies with professional treasury operations; d) large companies that exceed two of the following sizes: a) Balance sheet total of 20 million francs b) Turnover of 40 million francs; c) equity capital of 2 million francs. e) Private investment structures with professional treasury services set up for wealthy private clients.	The financial service provider has comprehensive duties of transparency and due diligence with regard to client orders, limited duties of verification with regard to the appropriateness and suitability of financial instruments, unless expressly waived by the professional client.
Institutional client: a) financial intermediaries under the Banking Act (BA), the Financial Institutions Act (FINIA) and the Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA); b) Insurance undertakings under the Insurance Supervision Act (ISA); c) foreign clients subject to prudential supervision, such as the aforementioned persons under letters a) and b); d) central banks; e) national and supranational public-law entities with professional treasury operations.	The financial service provider has neither duties of information, verification, documentation and accountability nor duties of transparency and diligence with regard to client orders.

Please note that neither Robeco Switzerland nor Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. serves Swiss private clients. However, certain Swiss private clients may opt-out to the professional client segment.

What opting-in / opting-out options do you have?

The FinSA provides a number of opting-in, respectively opting-out possibilities to clients of financial services and thus offers you different options:

Current Client segment	Opting-in- bzw. Opting-out-declaration by the client	New Client segment
Private/ retail client	Opting out because the retail client: by virtue of personal education and professional experience or comparable experience in the financial sector, has the knowledge necessary to understand the risks of the investments, and has assets of at least 500,000 Swiss francs and thus qualifies as a high net worth individual Opting-out, as the private client has assets of at least 2 million Swiss francs and is therefore considered a high net worth individual Opting-out Private investment structures with professional treasury services set up for wealthy private clients	Professional Client
Professional Client	Opting-in	Private/ retail client
	Opting-out for occupational pension schemes with professional treasury operations and other occupational pension institutions providing professional treasury operations Opting-out for companies with professional treasury operations Opting-out for Swiss or foreign collective investment schemes or their management companies, which are not deemed already as institutional client	Institutional Client
Institutional Client	Opting-in	Professional Client

For more information on FinSA, contact your local relationship manager or email us to rs-clientservicing@robeco.com.