THIS DOCUMENT IS AN INFORMATION BROCHURE ABOUT FINSA FOR TAURUS’ FINANCIAL SERVICES CLIENTS. THIS DOCUMENT IS FREELY AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION AT THE “LEGAL.TAURUSHQ.COM” WEBSITE ADDRESS IN THE “REGULATORY AND RISK DISCLOSURES” SECTION.

Taurus SA (“Taurus”) is a Swiss, FINMA-regulated, securities firm providing various financial services as described in Important risk and regulatory disclosure about Taurus SA.

The Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”) mainly governs the provision of financial services as well as the offering of financial instruments and is intended to strengthen investor protection. In terms of content, FinSA is closely aligned with the European regulatory reforms and mainly covers the following areas:

• Enhancement of investor protection
• Transparency of financial products
• Revision of organizational requirements for the provision of services.

FinSA applies to financial services provided to clients domiciled in Switzerland as well as to financial services provided in or out of Switzerland (e.g. to foreign domiciled clients).

Definitions

Under FinSA, financial services means the:

• acquisition or disposal of financial instruments;
• receipt and transmission of orders for financial instruments;
• administration of financial instruments (portfolio management); issuing of personal recommendations on financial instrument transactions (investment advice);
• granting of loans to finance financial instrument transactions (Lombard loans).

And financial instruments are:

• equity securities (shares, securities equivalent to shares such as participation certificates entitling the holder to dividend rights and/or voting rights, or securities convertible into equity securities);
• debt instruments;
• units in collective investment schemes;
• structured products;
• derivatives;
• deposits whose redemption value or interest rate is risk or price dependent, excluding those with an interest rate linked to an interest rate index;
• bonds: units in an overall loan subject to uniform conditions.

General information

Taurus SA is a securities firm subject to supervision by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (“FINMA”, Laupenstrasse 27, CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland, www.finma.ch). Its registered office is at Place Ruth-Bösiger 6, CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland.

The contact details can be found on the website www.taurushq.com.

Financial services

Taurus provides the following financial services that fall within the scope of the Swiss Federal Act on Financial Services:

• transaction execution (without providing advice) (receipt and transmission of orders for financial instruments);
• acquisition or disposal of financial instruments, i.e. activities addressed directly at certain clients that is specifically aimed at the acquisition or disposal of a financial instrument.

Moreover, Taurus is the operator of the T-DX organized trading facility (“OTF”) as described in Important risk and regulatory disclosure about T-DX.

Client classification

FinSA establishes the following three client classes: “Retail (non professional)”, “Professional” and “Institutional” clients. Depending on the client classification, different levels of investor protection apply, in particular, with regard to information duties, assessment of suitability and appropriateness as well as documentation and reporting duties:

• Retail clients: As a rule, clients who are not classified as Professional or Institutional are considered Retail (non professional) clients. This classification provides the highest degree of investor protection. In particular, it requires a detailed assessment of the suitability of the individual client’s investment (for advisory/portfolio management services), the provision of comprehensive information, and access to appropriate universe of financial instruments;
• Professional clients: Professional clients are clients who possess the knowledge, experience, and expertise to make their own investment decisions and properly assess the risks incurred, such as pension providers (namely pensions funds), public entities, and companies with a professional treasury function. As a result, a lower level of investor protection applies to them but they have access to a broader financial instruments and services universe;
• Institutional clients: Institutional clients include, inter alia, banks, insurance companies, and other financial intermediaries subject to prudential supervision in Switzerland or abroad. Given their structure, experience, and financial resources, these clients are considered highly sophisticated and less vulnerable. Therefore, the most protective measures under FinSA would not apply to them.

In line with the abovementioned FinSA requirements, Taurus classifies clients as “Retail” clients, “Professional” clients and “Institutional” clients. You may contact [email protected] if you are unsure about your client classification.

Verification of suitability and appropriateness

Taurus offers exclusively transaction execution (without advice). Consequently, Iin the absence of a discretionary asset management mandate or advisory mandate, Taurus conducts no suitability or appropriateness checks when it executes an order for financial instruments communicated by a client (irrespective of that client’s classification). In the case of transaction execution (without advice), Taurus expressly draws its client’s attention to the fact that it conducts no suitability or appropriateness checks, irrespective of whether the client is retail, professional or institutional. It does not reiterate this warning at any later stage in the contractual relationship.

Risk information

Transactions with financial instruments comprise opportunities, but also bear risks. It is therefore important to understand these risks before using any financial services.

The following documents provides general information about typical financial services and describes the characteristics and risks of financial instruments:

• Information from the Swiss Bankers Association regarding the risks involved in trading financial instruments
• Risks involved in trading, custody and staking of digital assets
• Risks involved in tokenized securities / assets
• Important risk and regulatory disclosure about T-DX

The above information contains details of the essential features and functionalities of the financial instruments and the risks of loss and any obligations arising from the financial instruments. Please familiarize yourself with the above information prior concluding a contract or investing into a financial instrument and contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

Cost information

In relation to the provision of financial services, costs and fees may be incurred both by Taurus and third parties. We distinguish between costs and fees that are charged directly to your account and financial instrument costs.

For Taurus fees, please consult the following price lists:

• Taurus PRIME financial services price schedule
• T-DX OTF price schedule

Where details are contained in the key information document or the prospectus, reference are made to the respective document.

Information about the effective costs and fees of your financial transactions can be obtained from [email protected] upon specific request. You can also obtain a physical copy of the price lists.

Key Information Documents

With the introduction of FinSA, a Key Information Document (“KID”) must be made available to all retail clients if personal investment advice is provided on certain financial instruments.

The KID is a standardized document, which provides a brief and simplified overview about the key features, risks and costs of a financial instrument. In addition, it facilitates the comparison of different instruments.

In case of non-​advised transactions, we only provide you with a KID if it has been made available by the manufacturer of the financial instrument. For transactions in the context of a portfolio management agreement, no KID will be provided.

These KIDs – if provided by the manufacturer – can be obtained from the manufactuer’s website, as well as from your [email protected] upon specific request.

Best execution

Taurus has established Best Execution arrangements for retail and professional clients that describe the principles, duties, and responsibilities to take all sufficient steps to systematically obtain the best possible result when either directly executing transactions on clients’ behalf or transmitting client orders to intermediaries for execution. A copy of the policy is available upon request from [email protected].

Conflicts of interests

Management of conflicts of interests

Taurus seeks to act in a professional and independent manner at all times while keeping in mind the best interests of its clients. It takes all reasonable measures to identify and prevent conflicts of interest that might arise when investment and/or related services are provided.

Taurus has therefore put in place organisational measures to pinpoint conflicts of interest and take reasonable measures to prevent the interests of its clients being adversely affected.

Should the internal measures designed to prevent and manage conflicts of interest be found to be insufficient to avoid, with a reasonable degree of confidence, the risks of prejudice to the interests of clients, Taurus will disclose the general or specific nature of such conflicts of interest. A copy of the conflicts of interest policy is available upon request from [email protected].

Compensation from third parties

Taurus expressly informs the clients in advance that it may receive payments from third-parties relating to the financial services.

Taurus informs clients in particular that it may receive the following payments from issuers/promoters/offerors in relation to T-DX:

• Trading admission fees: an administrative fee paid by an issuer/promoter/offeror to Taurus to have digital assets, securities and/or financial instruments admitted to trading on T-DX OTF;
• Tokenisation fees: a fee paid by an issuer to Taurus to tokenize digital assets and/or benefit from associated administrative support services.

Information on the market offer taken into account

By default, the market offer of financial instruments, digital assets and securities by Taurus (in particular on T-DX) comprises third-party financial instruments, unless indicated differently.

A financial instrument qualifies as Taurus’ own financial instrument if it is issued or offered by companies closely associated with Taurus, i.e. if

• Taurus holds a majority of the shares or voting rights of the offerer or issuer of the financial instrument or otherwise controls the offerer or issuer; or
• the majority of the shares or voting rights of Taurus are directly or indirectly held by the offerer or issuer of the financial instrument or the latter otherwise control the financial service provider.

Additional information

Taurus is committed to providing you transparency on all aspects of your relationship. Please refer to [email protected] if you would like additional information, in particular with regard to:

• Composition, valuation and development of your portfolio;
• Development of the portfolio in respect of the management of your custody accounts;
• Costs associated with the financial services;
• Amounts of remuneration effectively received in accordance with the Financial Services Act;
• Documentation established in the course of the client relationship (e.g. copy of client file).

Satisfaction

Taurus is committed to providing you with the highest level of service. If you are not entirely satisfied, we urge you to contact us at your earliest convenience so that we can seek to take all steps necessary to rectify these concerns.  

The most efficient way to address any concerns you have is to contact [email protected], who will in turn strive to answer any questions and resolve any concerns you might have.

You have also the possibility of initiating mediation proceedings before the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution, a recognised ombudsman in accordance with Title 5 of FinSA.