The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) announced that it has approved the first crypto fund “Crypto Market Index Fund”.
The fund is administered by investment management company PvB Pernet von Ballmoos (PvB), with custody by digital assets firm SEBA Bank and crypto broker Crypto Finance.
This new licenses granted to SEBA Bank and Crypto Finance allows both firms to offer digital custody services for Swiss domiciled mutual funds, and is an important new enabler of liquid investment funds with crypto or other digital assets as an underlying investment class.
The Crypto Market Index Fund, which is restricted to qualified investors, invests primarily in crypto assets which are based on the blockchain or distributed ledger technology.
Since crypto assets involve particular risks, FINMA has tied the approval to specific requirements in the present case. For instance, the fund may only invest in established crypto assets with a sufficiently large trading volume.
Furthermore, the investments must be made through established counterparties and platforms that are based in a member country of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and are subject to corresponding anti-money laundering regulations.
Finally, there are specific requirements with regard to risk management and reporting for the institutions involved in the management and custody.
Guido Buehler, CEO of SEBA Bank stated,
“Two years ago SEBA Bank received a Swiss banking and securities firm license and is now enjoying excellent business momentum as institutional adoption of crypto & digital assets accelerates globally.
With our new CISA license, SEBA Bank continues its pioneering role in the institutional digital asset space. Asset managers can now offer strategies based on crypto or other underlying digital assets to a broader audience utilising Swiss-based mutual fund structures secured by SEBA Bank as the CISA-licensed custodian.”
Bernadette Leuzinger, CEO of Asset Management at Crypto Finance said,
“Crypto Finance is pleased to launch the first Swiss crypto fund, supervised by FINMA and launched with strong Swiss partners PvB and SEBA Bank.
The investment fund enables clients of innovative wealth and asset management firms to participate in this upcoming asset class and to further diversify their portfolio in a secure and regulated way.”
