The Swiss Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FinMIA), also known under the German denomination FinfraG (Finanzmarktinfrastrukturgesetz), came into force on 1 January 2016. It regulates:
The organisation and the operation of financial market infrastructures, including stock exchanges and trade repositories;
The trading of derivatives;
The conduct of business rules, linked for example to insider trading and market manipulations, shareholding disclosures and public takeovers offers.
The main rationale behind the FinfraG regulation is to increase transparency in the Swiss derivatives market, and to mitigate systemic, counterparty and operational risks. The objective is to align the Swiss regulatory framework with international standards, in particular with EU regulations (MiFID, MiFIR, EMIR and CSDR). Specifically regarding derivatives trading, FinfraG introduced broad changes to the Swiss derivatives market and aims at increased transparency, reduced counterparty and operational risk in trading, as well as enhanced market integrity and oversight.