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UBS has put a great deal of effort into its compliance guidelines and action models. That accumulated legal knowledge is now being offered to third parties for the first time. UBS has compiled its financial market legislation and compliance knowledge in an expansive collection of documents. This know-how in the form of legal commentaries and the interpretation of laws is now being made available to other Swiss financial services providers, according to a statement on Tuesday.
The offerings can be accessed via the Partnervine platform, a Zurich-based startup specializing in marketing legal texts and services. The financial guidelines FidSA and FinIA as well as the revised Collective Investment Schemes Act provide the framework for the action and decision paths developed by the UBS.
The core element of the knowledge collection is a catalog of over 630 questions and answers that Swiss financial service providers can use for orientation. In addition, the collection contains decision trees, glossaries, tables, graphics, and cross-references to related topics and documents delivered in static pdf format.
The documents are offered in English only, but forms are also available in German, French and Italian. Access can be purchased either as a complete package or as topic-specific access to separate, smaller bundles, and come as static PDF files, according to the statement.
PartnerVine’s platform allows us to share our legal know-how on regulatory matters with other Swiss financial service providers helping them to navigate the complex regulatory environment, says Barbara Koch-Lehmann, group general counsel COO at UBS. She sees smaller financial institutions or asset managers, as a potential client group.
It is much easier and cost-effective especially for smaller Swiss financial service providers to plug into UBS’s knowledge than develop it themselves. Because it is the first time that a large company has provided comprehensive access to their legal know-how, it is a major milestone for legal operations globally, says PartnerVine CEO Jordan Urstadt.
Urstadt sees foreign banks operating in Switzerland as potential customers for UBS’s product, mainly because the documents are available in English. In Switzerland, the use is limited due to legal constraints.
