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The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) outlines in its Risk Monitor 2025 the most significant risks currently shaping the Swiss financial centre. The risk landscape is evolving rapidly across both financial and non-financial areas, increasing the pressure on institutions to enhance their resilience. Understanding these developments is now essential for strategic decision-making, not just compliance.
The FINMA Risk Monitor 2025 presents a clear picture of the structural vulnerabilities and emerging threats affecting banks and insurers in Switzerland. It not only reflects supervisory oversight, but also the broader context in which the Swiss financial system operates, shaped by economic uncertainty, technology advances and geopolitical tension.
The real estate and mortgage market remains a central point of concern. With CHF 1.24 trillion in domestic mortgages, overheating continues to pose a systemic threat. Elevated household debt and imbalances in property prices leave institutions exposed should a correction take place.
Credit risk also remains high. Corporate lending, particularly to SMEs, leveraged finance and Lombard loans, reacts quickly to changes in economic conditions. A downturn in activity could lead to a rapid deterioration in asset quality across several portfolios at once.
Liquidity has become a priority. FINMA notes that digital withdrawals and mobile banking have significantly accelerated the speed at which bank runs can develop. What once unfolded over days can now escalate within hours, requiring more dynamic stress testing and real-time liquidity monitoring.
The shift toward interconnected risk
Geopolitical and sanctions-related risk has intensified, and the consequences of non-compliance have become faster and more severe. For cross-border business models this increases both legal and reputational exposure.
Cyber threats continue to grow, and an increasing number of successful attacks are launched through external service providers. This development mirrors findings from the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook, which highlights supply-chain cyber attacks among the most relevant global risks.
Outsourcing is another area drawing attention. FINMA warns that reliance on a small number of dominant cloud and IT service providers creates dependency risks for the financial sector as a whole. The topic aligns with supervisory concerns described in the European Central Bank’s analysis of ICT and cloud concentration, signalling a European-wide shift toward stricter expectations.
Across all risk categories, one conclusion stands out: demonstrating operational resilience is now a decisive supervisory expectation. Institutions must show they are able to absorb, respond to and recover from disruptions — not only document controls.
What this means for financial institutions
The FINMA Risk Monitor 2025 makes one development clear: resilience has become a strategic requirement. The focus is shifting from identifying individual risks to creating an integrated understanding that links financial and non-financial risk drivers, improves transparency and enables controlled and consistent response.
Institutions that establish resilience as a core capability, supported by data, governance and timely information, will be better positioned to navigate regulatory expectations as well as real-world shocks.
How Swiss GRC supports the path to resilience
Swiss GRC helps financial institutions strengthen governance, risk management and operational resilience with an integrated platform aligned with supervisory expectations. The GRC Toolbox provides structured control frameworks, automated workflows and complete evidence trails for operational resilience across first and second line functions.
Organisations exploring how to operationalise resilience can connect with our experts here:
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