Tanja Schmid

Tanja focuses her practice on financial services, financial markets regulation, capital markets, general corporate law, and contractual matters.

She advises domestic and international financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, fund management companies, as well as businesses on all aspects of financial services, fintech, and capital markets law. She regularly represents her clients in licensing proceedings before the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and other supervisory and self-regulatory organizations, as well as in capital market transactions, including initial public offerings (IPOs), security token offerings (STOs), and capital increases. She advises financial institutions on their cross-border structures and regulatory frameworks and assists with the implementation of the new FinIA/FinSA regulation and other financial market regulations. Before joining Baker McKenzie as an associate in 2019, she gained additional experience in the legal department of a Swiss bank.

Tanja also provides her clients with training that is recognized by public bodies and organizations and is a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 in her field of practice.

• Advised Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, on the establishment of its representative office in Geneva, through which Mesirow delivers tailored currency management solutions to institutional clients in Switzerland.
• Regularly advises foreign financial institutions on the establishment and licensing of Swiss representative offices.
• Advised numerous Swiss and foreign financial institutions in licensing proceedings before the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Occupational Pension Supervisory Commission (OPSC), covering both initial license applications and license amendments, in the areas of collective investment schemes and investment foundations, asset management, banking and insurance.
• Regularly advises financial institutions on their regulatory reporting and notification obligations towards FINMA.
• Regularly advises entities and financial intermediaries on the scope of application of, and compliance with, the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act.
• Advises Swiss companies and their shareholders on their obligations under the new Swiss transparency register legislation, including the identification and reporting of beneficial owners.
• Regularly advises and trains companies listed on Swiss stock exchanges on stock exchange law and listing compliance matters, including ad hoc publicity, disclosure of shareholdings, insider trading, management transactions and the review of corporate governance and compensation reports.
• Regularly conducts training for client advisers of financial service providers.
• Structured the first Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) under Swiss law and advised VT5 Acquisition Company, the first Swiss-listed SPAC, on its initial public offering.