The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority has punished an anonymous former CEO of an unnamed Swiss bank for his conduct relating to insider dealing and other transgressions against supervisory law. It has ordered the confiscation of around SFr730,000 of his unlawfully generated profits and has imposed various bans on him.

FINMA has banned the anonymous man from acting in a management capacity for four years and trading in securities for six years.

A FINMA spokesman told Compliance Matters that he could not name the man because "the legal grounds in Switzerland prohibit us - you have to be really prudent." He did not explain those legal grounds, however, leaving onlookers to conclude that it is FINMA policy to punish insider dealing but nevertheless protect the reputations of the guilty.

During his time as an executive board member or as CEO, this phantom executed transactions through deposit accounts held in his wife’s name at other banks and thus contravened the bank’s internal directives. FINMA conducted investigations and discovered evidence of insider dealing and other offences. He was, according to FINMA, a repetitive and systematic offender. The spokesman told Compliance Matters that his transgressions happened "quite some time ago."
 
FINMA discovered that the man had used insider information that he had obtained by virtue of his role at the bank. He also disclosed privileged information.

According to the European Union's Market Abuse Regulation, 'inside information' generally means information which relates, directly or indirectly, to particular instruments or issuers. Is of a precise nature, has not been made public and, if it were to be made public, it would be likely to affect the prices of those instruments. From time to time, the EU widens its definition of this type of information.