Bio

Sandro Abegglen is head of NKF’s Banking, Finance & Regulatory Team. He has been advising and representing major Swiss and international financial institutions for almost 20 years on financial services regulatory, investment funds, asset management, civil law and AML/KYC issues and in enforcement proceedings vis-à-vis FINMA. For years, he has been ranked band one for banking, banking regulatory, investment funds and asset management by all major international law directories. Furthermore, Sandro has been ranked in the “Hall of Fame” in Banking and Finance by Legal 500 2023, as well as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” in Banking – Regulatory by Who’s Who Legal 2023. Sandro Abegglen is a member of the Legal and Compliance Committee of SFAMA, the Swiss investment fund and asset management industry’s self-regulatory and industry body. He is a board member of a large, international asset manager, and an adjoint professor for contracts and financial services laws at the University of Berne, Faculty of Law. Sandro is regularly asked by the Swiss government to act as expert on legislative projects, recently on the new Financial Services Act FIDLEG as well the new Financial Institutions Act FINIG, and frequently renders speeches at conferences of the Universities of Berne, Zurich and St. Gallen. For 20 years, Sandro has been advising and representing banks, securities houses and asset managers on financial services regulatory, civil law and AML/KYC issues. Typically, banks and asset managers instruct him on matters of strategic importance. He advised many major institutions on the sea-change inducement ruling of the Supreme Court, and is currently counseling large clients on the implementation of FIDLEG and FINIG. He is a highly recognised expert in investment funds, wealth management and asset management and in obtaining FINMA and other authorities licenses for institutions such as banks, securities dealers and asset managers, both in the traditional investment expertises and for private equity and real estate managers/advisors, as well as for their products such as investment funds and investment foundations – areas where he brought about a number of important practice changes. Sandro represents banks and asset managers, their directors and executive board members, in investigations and enforcement proceedings brought by the Swiss supervisory authorities FINMA and CDB Supervisory Board, and, in cooperation with international counsel, by other regulatory and law enforcement authorities, in particular from the UK and the USA. He represents clients at the Federal Administrative Court and the Swiss Supreme Court levels in appeals against FINMA decisions. Sandro advises and represents financial institutions in large, typically international litigations involving regulatory, code of conduct or AML/corruption issues.