Employment in Financial Services

First of all, various obligations discussed so far have the effect of forcing, if they were not already there, employees in the financial services sector to behave in an honourable manner and respect prudential rules.

In addition, Law 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life states in article 17 that in certain large companies, managers must take all measures to prevent and detect the commission, in France or abroad, of acts of corruption or influence peddling.

This means setting up a code of conduct that will be integrated into the internal regulations, in compliance with the procedure for consulting employee representatives provided for in article L. 1321-4 of the French Labour Code.

This code of conduct involves the implementation of measures and procedures that will be monitored by the French Anti-Corruption Agency. In particular, the code of conduct must define and provide examples of the various types of behaviour to be prohibited as likely to constitute corruption or influence peddling. It must also establish an evaluation and control system, as well as a disciplinary system, enabling the company's employees to be sanctioned if there is a violation of the company's code of conduct.

In addition to this code of conduct, which is part of the internal regulations, almost all players in the financial services sector have put in place charters and policies to protect confidential information and regulate risky activities.

Under Dutch law, financial services companies must maintain integrity and ensure safety, stability and integrity within their company. This also means that financial services companies must prevent their employees from committing criminal offences, other violations of the law or socially inappropriate behaviour that undermines confidence in the financial services sector or financial markets. For these reasons, it is common to implement company-specific codes of conduct.

There are many statutory general regulations and standards of behaviour that financial services employees are expected to adhere to. Moreover, all industries have their own specific industry-wide guidelines and codes of conduct.

An important statutory obligation for directors, (other) policymakers and employees with customer contact is to take an oath or promise before entering into employment. The oath or promise contains a declaration that – among other things – the employee will perform his or her duties with care and integrity, will put customer interests first and will make every effort to maintain and promote confidence in the financial services sector.

In addition to the oath or promise as mentioned above, there is also the “banker's oath”. This oath goes further than the oath or promise mentioned above and is mandatory for all employees who work for banks.

Breaching guidelines, codes of conduct or the statutory oath could lead to disciplinary sanctions being taken by the company itself (such as termination of the employment contract) or by disciplinary supervisors (such as a reprimand or a fine).

Depending on the regulatory status of the employing entity and, as the case may be, on the exact activities of a financial service employee, a financial service employee needs to adhere to certain code of conduct rules (eg, regarding transparency and care, documentation and accountability).

Supervised companies in Switzerland are, in principle, required to set up an organisation that ensures the compliance with Swiss financial market laws and its statutory code of conduct rules. For this purpose, among others, companies are required to issue regulations that their employees must follow.

Under Swiss financial market laws, code of conduct rules are generally based on abstract statutory rules and concretized by recognised privately organised associations.

In particular, several professional organisations (eg, the Swiss Bankers Association or the Asset Management Association) and self-regulated organisations issue their own set of code of conduct rules that members are required to follow.