The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has published its annual Risk Monitor. This document highlights the currently most significant risks for supervised institutions from FINMA’s perspective and describes the resulting focus of its supervisory activities.
The 2024 Risk Monitor identifies nine main risks, both financial and non-financial. In times of heightened geopolitical tensions, FINMA is also observing increasing risks, particularly in the area of sanctions and in the number of cyberattacks, especially those from third parties.
The provision of certain financial services and the granting of financial resources are prohibited due to trade restrictions (goods sanctions) and pose a risk for financial institutions of violating sanctions (e.g., Russia sanctions). The legal and reputational risks for financial institutions have consequently increased significantly.
The cyber risk remains very high. It is striking that more than half of the cyberattacks reported to FINMA indirectly affect financial institutions through affected third parties. Therefore, FINMA is increasingly focusing its supervisory attention on essential third parties. Due to the tendency of financial institutions to outsource to a small number of service providers, this threat situation is further exacerbated as a result of such concentration.
Click here for more details on the financial industry’s risk landscape.
