As reported in our previous information, the renewal of the QI Agreement is due on May 1, 2023. With this short update we would like to inform all QIs that have not renewed their QI Agreements yet on the most recent updates regarding the renewal process:
On April 3, 2023, the Swiss Bankers’ Association informed with its Circular Nr. 8095 that the Swiss Federal Department of Finance (FDF) confirmed that QIs that have already received a permission from the FDF to act as QI are not required to renew these permissions, or to request additional ones.
While applying for renewal, QI Responsible Officers may be prompted by the QI/WP/WT Application and Account Management System (QAAMS) to upload a Power of Attorney (Form 2848), which has caused confusion, because this requirement was not previously requested. It should be noted that this requirement is only for persons indicated as power of attorney holders in the "manage contact information" section of the system, not for the Responsible Officer or Contact Person. Therefore, before filing the renewal application, please review the power of attorney holders in that section of the system and remove power of attorney holders if necessary. To do so, use the link “Manage Contact Information” in the Activity Center of the QI account home page in the QAAMS (note that use of the power of attorney section is only available when logging in as QI Responsible Officer. If the power of attorney holders are correct, prepare the Forms 2848 for the holders and upload them in Part 4 of the renewal application).
Some QIs which renew the QI Agreement after March 31, 2023, may notice that the Renewal Status in the system is automatically set to “Approved”, even though they have not submitted a renewal application. We assume this to be a bug in the system, and therefore, QIs should still apply for renewal of the agreement.