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Regulatory Information

POLARIS Investment Advisory AG - CLIENT CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FINSA

According to the article 4 par. 1 of the Federal Act on Financial Services (FinSA), financial services providers shall assign the persons for whom they provide financial services to one of the following segments: a) retail clients, b) professional clients or c) institutional clients. Due to its B2B business policy, POLARIS has no business relationships with private clients. POLARIS’ clients are classified either as institutional or as professional ones.

INSTITUTIONAL CLIENT STATUS

  • financial intermediaries as defined in the Banking Act of 8 November 1934 (BankA), the Financial Institutions Act of 15 June 2018 (FinIA) and the CISA;
  • insurance companies as defined in the ISA;
  • foreign clients subject to prudential supervision as the persons listed under a and b above;
  • central banks;
  • national and supranational public entities with professional treasury operations

Institutional investors have the lowest level of investor protection among all client categories.

PROFESSIONAL CLIENTS

The following are defined as per-se professional clients:

  • financial intermediaries as defined in the Banking Act of 8 November 1934 (BankA), the Financial Institutions Act of 15 June 2018 (FinIA) and the CISA;
  • insurance companies as defined in the ISA; - foreign clients subject to prudential supervision as the persons listed under a and b above;
  • central banks,
  • public entities with professional treasury operations;
  • occupational pension schemes with professional treasury operations and other occupational pension institutions providing professional treasury operations;
  • companies with professional treasury operations;
  • large companies;
  • private investment structures with professional treasury operations created for high-net-worth retail clients.

Professional clients are treated as sophisticated investors who have a lower level of investor protection than private clients, based on their level of knowledge and experience, and their ability to bear financial losses.

WHO CAN GET CLASSIFIED AS A PROFESSIONAL CLIENT?

A client who is not classified by law as a professional client (‘per-se professional client’) may apply for a change of classification (‘opting out’).

WILL WE CONTACT YOU TO CONFIRM YOUR STATUS?

If you are an institutional client, your classification is defined by law (article 4 par. 4 FinSa). We will keep track of your classification in our files, but will not contact you in this regard.

In case of clients, whose status needs to be confirmed (like asset advisors or family offices), please note that we’ll contact you to confirm your classification.

CONTACT AND LEGAL INFORMATION

In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us:

POLARIS Investment Advisory AG

Legal & Compliance

Bahnhofplatz 12

CH-8001 Zürich

Direct: +41 44 365 70 83

Evelyn.Hilpold@polaris-investments.ch

Client Advisor Register

Since January 1st, 2020 due to the entry into force of FIDLEG there is no regulatory supervision for fund distribution companies via FINMA anymore. Instead FINMA now applies an indirect regulation approach on the level of the POLARIS employee. As such, all POLARIS employees with client responsibility have been entered into the Client Advisor Register of BX Swiss AG (https://www.regservices.ch/en/client-advisor-registry/).

Name of Ombudsman Office:

Finanzombudsstelle Schweiz (FINOS)

Talstrasse 20

CH-8001 Zürich

info@finos.ch

044 552 08 00