Regulatory resilience as a strategic standard.

How Erlen Capital, a FINMA-licensed Swiss asset manager, transformed its compliance infrastructure with Indicium – from manual processes to structured, audit-ready KYC reporting.

The client

Erlen Capital is an independent asset manager headquartered in Zurich. Licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and supervised by a Swiss supervisory organisation, the firm pursues an analytical, fundamental investment approach focused on long-term value preservation and sustainable growth under Managing Partner Bruno Schneller.

Through its regular publication series – Erlen Insights – the firm positions itself as an independent voice in the Swiss financial centre: opinionated, analytically grounded, and committed to making complex relationships accessible. The same rigour shapes its approach to regulatory requirements.

The challenge

The Swiss financial centre is undergoing a period of regulatory densification that is historically remarkable in both speed and depth. With the Financial Institutions Act (FINIG), the Financial Services Act (FIDLEG), and the continuously tightened provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (GwG), the requirements profile for asset managers has fundamentally changed. Added to this are the requirements of the revised Swiss Data Protection Act (nDSG), which aligns with the European GDPR in key respects.

For a FINMA-licensed asset manager like Erlen Capital, this environment creates a dual obligation: on one hand, the material duties of care – client identification and verification, beneficial ownership assessment, ongoing monitoring of business relationships – must be fulfilled completely. On the other hand, documentation must be structured to withstand the scrutiny of internal and external audit bodies at all times.

Existing processes involved significant manual effort, decentralised document storage, and heterogeneous review procedures. While functional, this setup was reaching its limits: scalability was constrained, documentation consistency varied, and responsiveness to new regulatory requirements was slowed by the high manual workload.

The client's voice

"Erlen Capital is an independent asset manager based in Zurich, licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and supervised by a Swiss supervisory organisation. In this regulatory environment, KYC, anti-money laundering, and due diligence obligations are central components of client onboarding and ongoing business relationships. Against this background, we evaluated how existing review and documentation processes could be made more efficient, structured, and data-protection-compliant within client onboarding. The goal was to implement regulatory requirements consistently and further strengthen traceability for internal and external audit bodies. With Indicium, we were able to implement a digital process that provides structured and traceable reports and supports our internal documentation processes. The decisive factors for us were European data residency and the clear consent structure."

– Bruno Schneller, Managing Partner, Erlen Capital Management AG

The solution: Indicium Enterprise Solution

Following a structured evaluation phase, Erlen Capital selected the Indicium Enterprise Solution as its central platform for compliance processes. The implementation covered the full digitalisation of client onboarding and ongoing review processes.

The result

Erlen Capital now operates a fully digital compliance infrastructure for client onboarding and ongoing monitoring. Reports are structured, traceable, and available in minutes rather than days. Documentation meets the standards required by FINMA supervision and internal audit. The firm can respond to new regulatory requirements without proportional increases in manual workload.

The implementation demonstrates that regulatory resilience is not merely a compliance exercise but a strategic standard – one that strengthens client trust, operational efficiency, and regulatory standing simultaneously.

Your compliance infrastructure, transformed.

See how Indicium can structure your KYC and due diligence processes – with the same rigour Erlen Capital relies on.