The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA today published guidance on the issuance of stablecoins.
In it, it comments on default guarantees, the associated risks and discloses its practice on stablecoins. It further draws attention to the increased risks in the area of money laundering.
In recent years, projects seeking to issue stablecoins have also gained in importance in Switzerland. They generally pursue the goal of providing a means of payment with low price volatility on a blockchain. FINMA has already commented on this in its supplement to the ICO guidelines for enquiries regarding the regulatory framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) from September 2019.
In the guidance, FINMA provides information on aspects of financial market law that arise in relation to stablecoin projects and the impact of such projects on the supervised institutions.
In connection with stablecoin projects, FINMA draws attention to the increased risks in the areas of money laundering, terrorist financing and the circumvention of sanctions. These also result in reputational risks for the Swiss financial centre as a whole.
FINMA notes that various issuers of stablecoins in Switzerland use default guarantees from banks, which means that they often do not require a licence from FINMA under banking law. This creates risks for both the stablecoin holders and the banks providing the guarantee. In addition, FINMA provides information on its minimum requirements for default guarantees in order to protect depositors. These also apply when dealing with stablecoins.