Who needs a banking licence for a CHF token?
A role-by-role guide to the eight CHF token business models — showing when a bank is required and how non-banks can participate under existing Swiss rules.
Short answer
The use case does not decide the licence. The decisive question is who owes holders CHF and on what terms.
Legal status reviewed: 25 September 2026
The critical distinction: a business may avoid a banking licence and still need AML supervision, SRO affiliation, or a FinIA, CISA or FinMIA authorisation. Every participant must be classified by its own activity.
Four questions determine the answer
Start with the legal claim, not the technology or the label “stablecoin”.
- 01
Who owes the CHF?
If your company promises holders repayment at par, it is the issuer for the banking-law analysis. A technical operator is not automatically the issuer.
- 02
Is the claim offered to the public?
Retail and broad business distribution normally point to public deposits. A strictly intra-group claim may fall outside that perimeter.
- 03
Are funds invested or remunerated?
Investing the funds or paying interest removes the key FinTech-licence and sandbox conditions and can point to a banking or investment-product regime.
- 04
What else does each participant do?
Payments, exchange, custody, collective investment and multilateral trading can trigger AMLA, FinIA, CISA or FinMIA duties independently of the issuer's status.
Current routes for banks and non-banks
These are alternatives for the issuer-level banking-law question. Other activity-based rules can apply alongside them.
The issuer accepts more than CHF 100 million in public deposits, or invests the accepted funds or pays interest on them.
Full prudential requirements apply. This is also the natural route for a tokenised bank deposit.
A non-bank accepts public deposits or crypto-based assets up to CHF 100 million and neither invests them nor pays interest.
Client funds are not protected by Swiss deposit insurance; customers must be told this.
A supervised bank provides a qualifying default guarantee that meets FINMA's minimum conditions.
The structure avoids a banking licence for the issuer, but not AML duties; capacity and terms depend on the guarantor.
A small test accepts no more than CHF 1 million, does not conduct interest-margin business and gives the required disclosures.
Useful for validation, not a scalable market launch. AML obligations can still apply.
A company supplies software, wallets, distribution or merchant acceptance while a regulated third party remains issuer and redemption debtor.
No bank licence merely for providing technology, but custody, exchange, payment or trading activity can trigger separate authorisation or AML supervision.
The eight use cases
The status is an issuer-level starting point, not a final legal opinion. “Non-bank route available” does not mean unregulated.
Issuer-level reading
A strictly intra-group treasury token may fall outside the public-deposit prohibition because holders belong to the same economic group.
What a non-bank can do
A group treasury company may run the internal token and ledger without becoming a bank, provided access remains genuinely intra-group.
What changes the answer
External suppliers, joint-venture partners or other third parties become holders, or the token is publicly offered.
Other rules to check
Third-party payment activity can trigger AMLA duties. Cross-border tax, accounting and capital-control rules remain relevant.
Issuer-level reading
A redeemable CHF claim offered to many corporate clients is normally assessed as a public deposit even though all holders are businesses.
What a non-bank can do
Use an Art. 1b FinTech licence, a qualifying bank guarantee, or let a licensed bank issue while the non-bank provides the payment technology.
What changes the answer
Persistent client balances and a direct redemption claim against the operator increase banking-law exposure; short-lived settlement balances may be treated differently.
Other rules to check
Cross-border payment and exchange services will generally require AML supervision or SRO affiliation.
Issuer-level reading
A consumer-facing issuer of a redeemable CHF token is inside the public-deposit analysis and faces heightened holder-protection scrutiny.
What a non-bank can do
A FinTech licence or compliant bank-guarantee model may work; a non-bank can also distribute a token issued by a regulated institution.
What changes the answer
Scale above CHF 100 million, investment of customer funds or payment of interest points to a full banking licence.
Other rules to check
AMLA duties, sanctions controls, wallet-holder identification and foreign consumer rules are central.
Issuer-level reading
The CHF settlement token follows the same deposit analysis; using it on a venue does not itself remove the issuer-level requirement.
What a non-bank can do
A venue may use a third-party regulated CHF token and avoid issuing a deposit claim itself.
What changes the answer
Holding standing client CHF balances or becoming the redemption debtor can create a separate deposit-taking issue for the platform.
Other rules to check
Multilateral trading or settlement of DLT securities can require a FinMIA DLT trading-facility licence; brokerage may engage FinIA and AMLA.
Issuer-level reading
Both the token issuer and the platform's treatment of customer balances must be assessed separately.
What a non-bank can do
A non-bank platform can integrate a regulated third-party token and segregated custody rather than owe customers CHF itself.
What changes the answer
Pooled or reusable customer balances that become claims on the platform can move the operator into banking-law territory.
Other rules to check
Retail execution, custody and advice may engage AMLA, FinIA and FinSA; pooled investment structures may engage CISA.
Issuer-level reading
A pure messaging or technical rail does not need a banking licence merely because it supports CHF-token transfers.
What a non-bank can do
Operate the infrastructure while one or more regulated institutions issue the token and retain the redemption obligation.
What changes the answer
The operator issues the token, holds participant balances on its own balance sheet or assumes the redemption debt.
Other rules to check
Payment services can trigger AMLA duties; a payment system or DLT trading facility can require FinMIA authorisation depending on function and importance.
Issuer-level reading
Merchant acceptance alone is not deposit-taking, but a wallet provider holding prepaid CHF balances may itself accept public deposits.
What a non-bank can do
Merchants and technical acceptance providers can use a third-party issued token; a wallet issuer may use the FinTech, guarantee or small sandbox route.
What changes the answer
A standing customer float redeemable against the wallet provider, rather than immediate forwarding to the merchant or issuer.
Other rules to check
Payment execution and conversion can require AML supervision. Switzerland has no separate EU-style e-money licence.
Issuer-level reading
A token designed to be held as a redeemable CHF claim is the clearest public-deposit case and does not fit a short-term settlement exception.
What a non-bank can do
A non-bank can use a qualifying bank guarantee or a FinTech licence up to CHF 100 million if it pays no interest and does not invest the funds.
What changes the answer
Yield, investment of backing funds, or scale above the FinTech cap makes a full banking licence or a differently regulated investment-product structure likely.
Other rules to check
A fund or pooled yield product can fall under CISA/FinIA and FinSA rather than being treated as a payment stablecoin.
Current law versus the proposed regime
Current rules: the Banking Act, FinTech licence, sandbox and FINMA's bank-guarantee practice remain the operative paths described on this page.
Proposal of 22 October 2025: the Federal Council proposed new payment-institution and crypto-institution licence categories. The proposal is not treated here as enacted law.
Official sources
Continue the analysis
Important legal caveat
This page provides general research, not legal advice or a FINMA determination. The exact result depends on contracts, reserve ownership, redemption rights, participant numbers, transaction duration and every party's role. Obtain Swiss legal advice and, where material, a project-specific FINMA assessment before launch.