TL;DR
- SBA says the FinIA draft forces banks to issue stablecoins via a payment-institution vehicle, calling the licensing cascade unjustified given bank oversight.
- Draft creates FINMA supervised payment and crypto institutions, removes the CHF 100 million client fund cap, and requires full backing with par redemption.
- Pressure rises as MiCAR is in force, CHF stablecoins stay tiny, and Swiss industry groups push faster licensing and a two tier supervision model.
Switzerland’s banking lobby is pressing for a clean green light for bank issued stablecoins as lawmakers revise the Financial Institutions Act. The Swiss Bankers Association says banks should be allowed to issue regulated stablecoins directly, instead of being forced into a licensing cascade that requires a separate payment institution vehicle. In its position, the association supports the goal of strengthening Switzerland’s competitiveness in stablecoins, but argues the draft misprices operational reality because banks already anchor payment flows and face stricter supervision than the newly proposed license classes. It wants rules aligned with existing bank safeguards.
FinIA draft would reshape licenses for stablecoins and crypto intermediaries
The Federal Council opened consultation on the FinIA amendment in October 2025 and closed it on February 6, 2026, with the draft adding two FINMA supervised categories. This reform would move key crypto activities from self regulatory oversight to direct prudential supervision, raising the baseline for governance and controls. A new payment institution category would replace the current fintech license and permit regulated stablecoin issuance without the prior CHF 100 million client fund cap. Client funds could be segregated in bankruptcy and parked as sight deposits at banks or in high quality liquid assets today.
The draft would also create a crypto institution category for custody, trading, and market making in crypto assets with trading characteristics such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or foreign stablecoins. For regulated stablecoins, the proposal is explicit: full backing by equivalent assets, redemption at par on demand, and powers to block transactions, freeze funds, and reclaim them even against a holder’s will. The banking group links its stance to its April 2025 expert report, which frames a stablecoin as strategic while warning that large issuance could drain deposits and lift refinancing costs unless backed by bank deposits.
Pressure on Switzerland is mounting as rules harden abroad and volumes scale. The association’s message lands amid a stablecoin wave and fear that slow Swiss licensing could push issuers elsewhere. MiCAR has been fully applicable since December 2024, with stablecoin provisions effective June 2024; by February 2025 authorities had revoked licenses from over 50 crypto firms and imposed more than EUR 540 million in fines, and MiCAR offers no equivalence path. CHF based tokens total $40 million, or 0.13% of stablecoins, and four Swiss industry groups demand faster licensing and a two tier model.
