Client information (FinSA) / Financial Institutions Act (FinIA)
June 2024
Information on Amasus Investment AG
Amasus Investment AG (hereinafter “Amasus”) offers services in the field of asset management, physical custody of precious metals, safe deposit box rental and execution-only and is based at Freigutstrasse 27 in 8002 Zurich. AMASUS
is registered as a stock corporation in the Swiss commercial register.
Amasus is licensed as an asset manager by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and is supervised by the same in accordance with the Swiss Federal Act on Financial Institutions (FinIA) with the involvement of AOOS – Swiss Corporation for Supervision, Clausiusstrasse 50, 8006 Zurich, a supervisory organization. The provision of financial services by AMASUS is subject to the provisions of the Federal Law on Financial Services (FinSA).
How can I get in contact with Amasus?
The client can communicate with Amasus in German and English. Amasus can be reached as follows:
Amasus Investment Ltd.
P.O. Box
Freigutstrasse 27
CH-8027 Zurich
Telephone +41 44 200 53 70
Email info@amasus.ch
Further details on communication between the parties are regulated individually by contract.
What can I do to ensure that my assets do not become contactless or dormant?
Contact with Amasus or your bank may be broken off and the assets at the bank may subsequently become contactless or dormant. Recommendations for avoiding the loss of contact:
Please inform Amasus and your bank immediately if you change your place of residence, address or name.
Use your bank’s digital services (e-banking, mobile banking) and log in to your digital banking regularly.
Inform Amasus and your bank if you are going away for an extended period and your correspondence is to be redirected to a third-party address so that Amasus and your bank can still reach you in urgent cases.
It is generally advisable to nominate an authorized person or a person of trust to whom Amasus and your bank can contact in the event of a break in contact. However, Amasus and your bank can only provide such information to a person of trust if they have been authorized to do so in writing.
Further information can be found in the brochure “Assets without contact and dormant assets” of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) on the following website: Swissbanking Downloads
What are the terms and conditions of the services provided by Amasus?
The rights and obligations between Amasus and the client in connection with the provision of financial services are regulated in the individual asset management agreement. The present client information serves as supplementary information.
In which categories are the clients classified?
Amasus is obliged to classify the client as a retail client, professional client or institutional client. The scope of the individual conduct duties of Amasus varies depending on the client segment. New clients are informed about their classification and existing clients are only informed about a change of their existing classification.
Retail client
A retail client is considered to be one who cannot be clearly assigned to the professional client or institutional client category. By being classified as a retail client, the client enjoys the highest level of protection.
Professional Client
Professional clients are:
- Public corporations with professional treasury;
- Pension funds and institutions which, according to their purpose, serve the purpose of occupational pension provision, with professional treasury;
- Companies with professional treasury;
- Large companies;
- Private investment structures with professional treasury for wealthy retail clients.
A professional client has a lower level of protection than a retail client. In particular, Amasus may assume for a professional client that the acting persons have sufficient experience, knowledge and expertise to make investment decisions and to adequately assess the associated risks and that the risks associated with the investment decisions are financially bearable for the client.
In addition, professional clients may release Amasus from applying the rules of conduct pursuant to Art. 8, 9, 15 and 16 FinSA (information, documentation and rendering of account obligations).
Institutional Clients
Institutional clients are:
regulated legal entities such as financial intermediaries under the Banking Act (BA), the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) and the Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA), insurance undertakings under the Insurance Supervision Act (ISA); foreign clients subject to equivalent prudential supervision; central banks; and national and supranational public corporations with professional treasury.
They benefit from the lowest level of protection. The rules of conduct pursuant to Art. 7 to 19 FinSA per se do not apply to this client category.
Reclassification
Clients have the following options for changing the client segment:
- Retail clients may at any time request in writing Amasus to change their client classification to the category of professional client if they meet at least one of the following criteria:
o The client has the knowledge necessary to understand the risks of the investments, based on personal training and professional experience or comparable experience in the financial sector, and has assets of at least CHF 500,000;
o The client has assets of at least CHF 2 million.
- Pension institutions and institutions with professional treasury which, according to their purpose, serve the purpose of occupational pension provision and companies with professional treasury may declare that they wish to be regarded as institutional clients instead of professional clients;
- Professional clients have the option to request a reclassification as private client;
- Institutional clients may declare that they wish to be considered professional clients.
Such a change also entails a change in the level of protection applicable to the client.
All declarations with regard to the change of client segment must always be made in writing.
The client is obliged to inform Amasus of any changes that might affect his classification. If Amasus realises that the client no longer meets the conditions of the of the client segment he is classified, Amasus is obliged to take action itself
and adjust the client segmentation. In this case Amasus will inform the client immediately.
What services are offered?
Asset management
Asset management is aimed at clients who wish to entrust Amasus with the discretionary management of their assets within the framework of the Amasus investment policy as well as individually defined and written criteria (investment
strategy). The investment strategy considers the knowledge and experience of the client as well as the investment objectives and financial circumstances of the client. With an asset management agreement, Amasus is authorised to make investments at its own discretion.
Risks associated with asset management
Asset management generally involves the risks described below, which you assume and accept
- Investment strategy: Different risks may arise depending on the agreed investment strategy. A description of the risks and a corresponding risk disclosure are provided when the investment strategy is agreed.
- Losses: Partial or total losses can occur with any financial instrument. The risks of the various financial instruments are described in the brochure “Risks in trading financial instruments” published by the Swiss Bankers Association.
- Information deficits: Sound investment decisions require that you inform us fully and accurately about your financial circumstances and investment objectives. If this is not the case, we may not be able to make suitable investment decisions for you.
- Qualified investor for collective investment schemes: With the asset management agreement concluded, you are considered a qualified investor within the meaning of the Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA), unless – if you are a private client – you waive this in writing (so-called opting-out). Qualified investors have access to forms of collective investment schemes that are exclusively open to them. This status enables a broader range of financial instruments to be taken into the portfolio. Collective investment schemes for qualified investors may be exempt from regulatory requirements. Such financial
instruments are therefore not or only partially subject to Swiss regulations. This may result in risks, in particular due to liquidity, investment strategy or transparency. Detailed information on the risk profile of a specific collective investment scheme can be found in the constituent documents of the financial instrument and, where applicable, the key information document and the prospectus. - Structured products for private clients: With a concluded asset management agreement you also have access to structured products that do not fulfil the minimum requirements of the Financial Services Act (FinSA), i.e. that are not issued, guaranteed or secured by a Swiss bank, insurance company or securities firm or by foreign institutions with equivalent regulation and supervision. Such products may have a lower level of investor protection and the associated increased financial risks.
Physical custody of precious metals
At the company site, the physical collective safekeeping of precious metals, primarily gold bars and coins for asset management clients and third parties, is offered in dedicated safe deposit boxes in the alarm-secured KABA strongroom with high-security lock.
Rental of safe deposit boxes
At the company site, safe deposit boxes in various sizes are rented to asset management clients and third parties in an alarm-secured KABA strongroom with a high-security lock.
Execution-only
Transactions with financial instruments that are not based on investment advice or decisions by Amasus and are carried out exclusively at the client’s request and own risk are treated by Amasus as execution-only transactions, i.e. as pure execution transactions without risk information. Amasus does not carry out a suitability test (see below).
What is the test for suitability?
The suitability test by Amasus is based on the information provided by the client which are deemed by Amasus to be accurate. If the client does not provide the requested information and data or only provides it insufficiently, Amasus is not able to provide the services to the client in an appropriate manner.
Suitability Test
In connection with asset management, Amasus must obtain various information from the client in order to ensure that Amasus only makes investment decisions that are suitable for the client (suitability test). This includes – as far as relevant – information on:
- Knowledge and experience of the client in relation to the agreed financial service;
- The client’s investment objectives, including: Information on the time horizon and the purpose of the investment, the risk capacity and willingness of the client as well as any investment restrictions;
- The financial circumstances of the client, including: Information on the type and amount of regular income of the client, his assets and his current and future financial obligations.
Based on this information, Amasus creates an investment and suitability profile with the client and agrees an investment strategy with him.
Presumption for Professional Clients
In assessing the knowledge and experience of legal persons or in the case of a power of attorney, Amasus focuses on the person acting vis-à-vis Amasus. If the authorised person is only collectively authorised to sign, all persons concerned must have the necessary knowledge and experience. When assessing financial circumstances and investment objectives, Amasus always focuses on the account holder. In the case of an account with two or more account holders, Amasus always focuses on the person with the weakest financial circumstances or the lowest risk capacity.
The investment universe of Amasus is basically determined by the valid “Portfolio Management Guidelines of the Swiss Bankers Association, in particular section 3 of the Guidelines_Portfolio_Management_2020_EN . However, it should be noted that these guidelines for banks are based on the Federal Law on Banks and Savings Banks (BankG).
The aforementioned guidelines are to be applied mutatis mutandis to the specific activities of Amasus when exercising asset management. Amasus’ discretion in asset management can be limited through special restrictions in the investment and suitability profile.
The investment decisions within the investment universe are made on one hand by the investment committee that meets regularly, which consists of portfolio managers and partners, and on the other hand by the portfolio manager responsible for the client or his deputy based on the chosen investment strategy.
Conflicts of Interest – General Principles
Amasus tries to protect and harmonize the interests of its clients, shareholders and employees. Nevertheless, conflicts
of interest cannot always be completely ruled out. In general, conflicts of interest can arise between Amasus, its
employees and its clients or between the clients of Amasus. In this context, Amasus has taken the following organisational measures to deal with possible conflicts of interest:
- Measures to identify conflicts of interest (e.g. reporting and disclosure obligations);
- Measures to prevent the exchange of information insofar as it could be contrary to the interest of clients (Chinese Walls);
- Functionally separation of the organization and management of the staff insofar as their main activities could cause a conflict of interest among clients or between clients’ interests and those of Amasus;
- Measures to prevent staff involved simultaneously or in immediate succession in different financial services from being assigned tasks which could be detrimental to a proper handling of conflicts of interest;
- A remuneration system which creates no incentives for staff to disregard statutory duties or to conduct themselves in a manner detrimental to clients;
- Issuance of rules for the acquisition and disposal of financial instruments for own account by staff.
Conflicts of interest that cannot be avoided by these measures are disclosed to the client before services are provided.
Amasus has no economic ties to third parties that could lead to a conflict of interest in connection with the provision of financial services.
Insofar as financial instruments issued by third parties but managed by Amasus are used in the context of asset management (“own financial instruments”, e.g. structured products such as Exchange Traded Products [«ETP»], there may be a conflict of interest due to the existing economic ties. This is due to the fact that Amasus performs other functions in addition to asset management (investment management) for its own financial instruments and receives remuneration for this. This could create an incentive for Amasus to preferentially use its own financial instruments.
However, Amasus has taken appropriate measures to avoid any adverse effects of this conflict of interest on the client. For example, the selection of financial instruments used in asset management is carried out by the Investment Committee, which meets regularly. Taking into account the chosen investment strategy, a structured and independent selection process is followed in which both internal financial instruments and those from third-party providers are evaluated and selected according to the same quantitative and qualitative criteria.
Which costs arise?
Various costs arise in connection with the execution of the order for Amasus. On the one hand, Amasus invoices its remuneration in accordance with the contractual agreement. On the other hand, there are also third party service costs (e.g. custody account fees), transaction costs (e.g. brokerage fees) but also product costs in connection with the purchase or sale of financial instruments (e.g. front-end loads).
The client receives detailed information on the costs from his portfolio manager.
Amasus strives to always provide the best possible service for its clients. Should the client nevertheless be dissatisfied with the service provided by Amasus, he has the option of initiating a mediation procedure at the Swiss Financial Ombudsman (FINOS), Talstrasse 20, CH-8001 Zurich, https://www.finos.ch/ with which Amasus is affiliated.