Brussels, 29 September 2020
Esther Widmer will start her new role on 1 January 2021. Her focus will lie on further strengthening the SFC’s dialogue with EU decision makers as well as fostering the discussion on EU-Swiss relations in Switzerland.
Esther Widmer has been the Financial Services Attachée at the Mission of Switzerland to the European Union since 2016. In this capacity, she monitors and analyses the developments of EU financial market policy and regulation with regard to the possible impact on Switzerland and does related advocacy work.
Before joining the Mission she was Deputy Head of Regulation at FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. In this role, she was working on various national financial market regulation projects and also Head of FINMA’s EU desk. During her time at FINMA she was seconded to the European Commission as a National Expert for five months in 2015 where she was able to work on EU financial services regulation on the side of the EU Institutions. Esther Widmer
had joined FINMA after several years of experience as an Attorney specialised in Banking and Finance. She is admitted to the bar in Switzerland and holds a PhD in law.
Commenting on the appointment, Peter Derendinger, Chairman of the SFC said: «Esther Widmer has extensive knowledge of financial regulation in both the EU as well as the Swiss context and broad experience when it comes to developing and shaping regulation and policy on the EU and Swiss side. With her proven track record and strong network in Switzerland and the EU, she is ideally qualified to lead the Swiss Finance Council’s activities across the relevant locations.»
Seven years after its foundation in 2013, the SFC has established itself as a broad platform for dialogue and information on EU developments in an international perspective. The discussions on the future development of the European financial market policy and regulation, including topics such as
Sustainable Finance, the digitalization in financial services and ways to enhance international regulatory consistency and coordination between Switzerland and the European Union are at the core of the SFC’s mandate.
The Swiss Finance Council was established in November 2013 to engage in dialogue around policy developments in finance at a European and international level. It represents the interests of internationally active Swiss financial institutions and facilitates sharing of experience, expertise and knowledge with EU authorities, including through a permanent representative office in Brussels.1
The organisation is led by a Board, which is chaired by Peter Derendinger, Chairman of the Board of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG and comprises Lukas Gähwiler, Chairman of the Board of UBS Switzerland AG, Urs Rohner, Chairman of the Board of Credit Suisse Group AG and Axel Weber, Chairman of the Board of UBS Group AG.
Contact:
Thomas Pohl, Secretary of the SFC Board
pohl@swissfinancecouncil.org; +41 58 796 99 20