Employment in Financial Services

All employees, including general managers and officers, must keep information and documents confidential and may only provide information to the competent authorities or authorised parties, with the prior express authorisation of the user or client.

Also, employees must:

• not stop internal committees from carrying out their functions;
• disclose to the financial entity all information regarding the use of illegal resources, or any act against goods, services, an individual’s life, or physical or emotional integrity, the use of toxic substances, or terrorist acts, so that the financial entity may provide the SHCP with a report on the subject; and
• in insurance or bonding Institutes, not offer discounts, reduce premiums or grant different benefits than those outlined in the corresponding policy.

General managers and officers must provide reports and information to the board of directors and the corresponding authorities periodically. The general manager must also provide precise data and reports to assist the board of directors in making prudent decisions.

General managers must develop and present to the board of directors, for its approval,  adequate policies for employment and the use of material and human resources, including restrictions on the use of goods, supervision and control mechanisms, and the application of resources to the company’s activities consistent with their business purposes.  

Insurance and bond companies will respond to the conduct of the general manager and officers, without prejudice to the civil and criminal liabilities that they may personally incur.

Also, if any conflict of interest exists or arises, general managers and officers must inform their employers immediately and suspend any activity within the scope of the contract that gives rise to the conflict until the matter is addressed.

Additionally, general managers and officers must verify the compliance of all individuals under their responsibility with all applicable legal provisions for financial services. These include: confidential obligations; the development of reports; informing their direct superior, officers, general manager or board of directors if there is a conflict of interest; informing the SCHP and Prosecutor’s Office if there is an act, operation or service using illegal resources, or an act that may harm the company, or the health or wellbeing of an individual or the general public.

Specifically, general managers in brokerage houses must:

• design and carry out a communications policy regarding identifying contingencies;
• implement and distribute the continuity business plan within the brokerage house and establish training programmes;
• inform the CNBV of contingencies in any of the systems and channels for clients, authorities and central securities counterparties;
• ensure that the continuity business plan is submitted for efficiency testing; and
• inform the CNBV in writing of the hiring or removal of the responsible party for internal audit functions.

Specifically, employees holding executive, overall management, oversight or control functions in regulated companies are responsible for ensuring that the companies’ organization ensures the continued compliance with applicable financial market laws. Swiss financial market laws do not have enhanced responsibilities for different employee categories. Instead, a person’s fitness and propriety are assessed within the context of the specific requirements and functions of a given company, the scope of activities at that company, and the complexity of that company.

In terms of articles 132, 153-A to 153-X of the FLL, employers must provide employees with training so they can render their services and comply with the duties of their positions, and employees should receive such training under the plans and programmes formulated by mutual agreement of the employer and employees. Nevertheless, as indicated in previous questions, for employees to occupy certain positions, they must meet the requirements, and for brokerage houses proxies must be authorised to exercise their duties under their position within the brokerage houses.  

According to article 117 bis 9 of the general provisions applicable to brokerage houses, general managers are responsible for implementing, maintaining and distributing the continuity plan of the business within the brokerage house. Therefore, the general manager must establish a training programme outlining the actions to be carried out if an operation contingency arises.

On the other hand, the AMIB provides courses and training for interested individuals to obtain the necessary skills and capacity to perform the activities of proxies in brokerage houses, and thereafter, to obtain authorisation from the AMIB and CNBV to act and perform the corresponding duties of the position.  

A Finance Educational Committee has been created by several financial institutions, authorities, and the Bank of Mexico and is presided over by the SHCP. This committee is in charge of, among other things, defining a finance educational policy; preparing a national strategy for financial education and guidelines; and identifying new work areas and proposing new actions and programmes in financial education.

In general, regulated companies (eg, banks, insurance companies or asset managers) are required to set up and maintain an organisation that ensures compliance with applicable financial market laws. Given the organisational measures and depending on the regulatory status of the employing entity and the position and activities of the financial services employee, there are training requirements.

While Swiss financial market regulations do not have an exhaustive list of exact training requirements, FINMA requires, among others, that the highest bodies of supervised companies (eg, executives of board members of banks, securities firms, insurance and reinsurance companies, fund management companies, managers of collective assets or asset managers) can fulfil the requirements of the so-called fit and proper test. These requirements extend to all character-related and professional elements that enable an officeholder to manage a supervised company in compliance with applicable laws. Part of the professional elements are relevant work experience and education. In addition, persons holding key positions (eg, compliance and risk officers and their deputies) are required to demonstrate sufficient know-how because of their work experience and education.

That said, the Swiss financial services and insurance supervisory regulations provide for more concrete training requirements. In particular, client advisers of Swiss and foreign financial service providers (eg, investment advisers) may need to demonstrate that they have sufficient knowledge of the code of conduct rules of the Swiss financial services regulation and the necessary expertise required to perform their activities. In addition, insurance intermediaries registered with FINMA’s insurance intermediary register have to prove that they have undergone sufficient education and have sufficient qualifications. On its website, FINMA has published a list of different educational Swiss and foreign qualifications that it deems to be sufficient.