Recently, the Federal Council announced the creation of a new investment category for unlisted investments.
This will make it easier for pension funds to invest in innovative technologies in Switzerland.
The corresponding changes to the OPP 2 and OFP ordinances will come into force on January 1, 2022.
A separate category in the catalog of authorized investments for pension funds will be created for unlisted Swiss investments, with a limit of 5% of investment assets.
For the time being, these investments fall into the category of alternative investments, with a limit of 15%.
At present, depending on its risk capacity, a pension fund can decide to what extent it can make full use of this limit.
The Swiss pension funds will continue to assume this responsibility in the future, via their competent bodies.
In terms of so-called alternative investments, Swiss pension funds could in particular invest in cryptocurrency, but they don’t, unlike countries like the USA, or Canada.
Indeed, caution seems to be the watchword in Switzerland, because for this investment category, it’s possible to record a total loss in light of the current cryptocurrency boom.
