Finma lowered the profit clawback from Banca della Svizzera Italiana, a now-defunct Swiss private bank which was sanctioned over its dealings with 1MDB four years ago. It banned two ex-BSI bankers.
The Bern-based financial regulator is knocking 25 million Swiss francs ($28 million) off of a landmark 2016 enforcement against BSI, a Swiss private bank which dealt extensively with 1MBD, it said in a statement on Thursday. BSI, now part of EFG International, will have to pay 70 million francs instead of 95 million francs, Finma said.
The regulator also banned two bankers for several years and issuing reprimands to four more – none of the people involved were named. Finma said one of the banned bankers violated supervisory law, but that it wouldn't order any other measures. It shut the second case with a ban after the banker agreed they wouldn't take a management position at a Swiss bank again. Both banned bankers have appeals pending in federal court.
Swiss-1MDB Dominos
The outcome is the result of a more than four-year-long court tussle between the bank, founded in Lugano in 1873, and its regulator. BSI was the first domino to fall in connection with 1MDB in Switzerland, though many Swiss private banks including UBS and Edmond de Rothschild were also sanctioned.
EFG, which had pursued BSI's legal case after acquiring the bank in 2016 for $1.06 billion, acknowledged Finma's decision, in a statement on Thursday. The Zurich-based wealth manager said the lower fine won't affect its financial results: the provision for the payment returns to BSI's previous owner, BTG Pactual, as agreed during the 2016 deal.
More to follow
