The Swiss financial centre has the potential to play a leading global role in sustainable finance, and for Swiss banks sustainable finance is both an opportunity and a top priority.

The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has introduced new guidelines to help banks when providing their private clients with advisory services.

Swiss financial institutions are among the leading global players in offering and marketing innovative financial instruments, including in the area of sustainable finance. At the end of 2019, around one third of professionally managed assets in Switzerland were invested sustainably, and the trend is set to continue to rise sharply.

The recently published guidelines focus on consideration of ESG criteria (environment, social, governance) in the advisory process for the management of private client assets. In this way, the SBA aims to ensure that private investors continue to catch up in this space.

The guidelines consider the entire advisory process, including how sustainable criteria can be integrated into planning. In addition to standard client considerations such as risk, revenues and liquidity, sustainability aspects are incorporated as a further dimension, with the intention of making sustainability choices easier for clients.