Biography

Alain Girard is since August 1st 2022 head of the recovery and resolution division at FINMA, the Swiss financial market supervisory authority. He leads the team that prepared and coordinated the “ready to be executed resolution” (FSB 2023, 2023 Bank Failures – Preliminary lessons learnt for resolution, page 16) of Credit Suisse during the bank’s (last) crisis, which culminated in the merger with UBS on March 19th, 2023. He is a member of the FSB Resolution Steering Group.

Alain Girard previously headed the Department for the supervision of small banks and securities firms at FINMA. In this function, he was a key architect of the reform of the supervision of small banks in Switzerland, resulting in a risk-based approach while leveraging supervisory technology (small banks regime). Alain Girard joined FINMA in 2015 working in the recovery and resolution division on bank insolvency cases and resolution implementation. During this time, he represented FINMA in the creditors’ committee for a bank in bankruptcy. He had previously worked as an attorney specialized in financial and competition law in a private law firm in Zurich and at the Swiss competition commission (COMCO).

Alain Girard holds a doctorate in law as well as a master degree in economics and an LL.M. from the Humboldt University of Berlin. He was admitted to the bar in Berne in 2011.

Press releases:

FINMA, Lessons learned Credit Suisse: https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2023/12/20231219-mm-cs-bericht/

FSB, 2023 Bank Failures: Preliminary lessons learnt for resolution: https://www.fsb.org/2023/10/2023-bank-failures-preliminary-lessons-learnt-for-resolution/

FINMA, Small banks regime: https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2020/02/20200227-mm-kleinbankenregime/

FINMA, Appointment: https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2022/06/20220615-mm-wahl-gl-mitglieder/

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-girard-ba727915/