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Tel. +41 44 200 53 70  | info@amasus.ch | Freigutstrasse 27, 8002 Zürich | Postfach, 8027 Zürich

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Information on financial services (FinSA) / Financial Institutions Act (FinIA)

Mai 2023

Information on Amasus Investment LTD

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 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:
    • 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;
    • 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.

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 in financial instruments that are not based on an investment decision by Amasus and are carried out exclusively at the request of the client are treated by Amasus as execution-only transactions. Amasus does not perform 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

If a client is classified as a professional client, Amasus assumes that the client has the necessary knowledge and experience and that the financial risks associated with the investment decisions are acceptable for the client.

Proxy Relationships and Joint Accounts

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.

Which market offer does Amasus consider when selecting financial instruments?

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 (https://www.swissbanking.ch/_Resources/Persistent/a/f/5/e/af5e71eea8ca0ada60642230e7bf937d995c6c82/SBA_Guidelines_Portfolio_Management_2020_EN.pdf). 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 the 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.

Business affiliations with third parties in particular

Amasus has business affiliations with third parties which could lead to a conflict of interest in connection with the financial service.

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.

 

Where can the client turn in the event of a dispute?

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 with.