Swiss Finance: Capital Markets, Banking, and the Swiss Value Chain

CHAPTER 1

Finanzplatz Schweiz

INTRODUCTION

There is no parallel in Swiss history to the financial reforms that have taken place during the past quarter century. These reforms have created a financial landscape called Finanzplatz Schweiz,1 which boasts a completely integrated, fully automated electronic securities trading and post-trading infrastructure under the organizational umbrella of SIX Group. It is the result of an ongoing international competition for financial depth, breadth, and sophistication in a high-stakes world where financial transactions are executed at the blink of an eye and massive amounts of financial information flow in fractions of seconds. Electronic trading systems increase transaction speeds, but equally important are the benefits they bring in terms of efficiency, liquidity, transparency, and fairness, with respect to equal opportunity.

Competing for financial market leadership in the twenty-first century would be futile without state-of-the-art technology applied to all four major security groups: equities, bonds, exchange-traded funds and funds, and exchange-traded products. Organizationally, SIX Group manages and operates the Swiss value chain in four major business fields using the integrated services of 10 major subsidiaries. Together, these entities provide straight-through processing of transaction execution, clearing, and settlement, as well as high-quality reporting of financial information.2

SWISS VALUE CHAIN

Exhibit 1.1 provides an overview ...