Space finance has never had a regulator.
Now it does.
No treaty ever built the institution to standardise, certify, and supervise the financial infrastructure of the space economy — the way IOSCO, FATF, and IAIS did for banking, securities, and insurance on Earth. The SFSA is that institution.
A standards body, not a sovereign court.
The Outer Space Treaty makes states responsible for national space activity — but it says nothing about who certifies a space-economy bank, sets its capital standards, or resolves a dispute between an institution and a regulator. That gap is structural, not an oversight, and it will not close on its own.
The SFSA fills it the way aviation filled its own gap before the Chicago Convention: with a standards and certification body first, and a treaty-based structure later, once the industry and the law have caught up with each other.
- Legal form
- Swiss Association (Verein)
- Governing law
- Swiss Civil Code, Art. 60–79
- Seat
- Switzerland
- Governance
- Council & Secretary General
- Modeled on
- IOSCO · FATF · IAIS
- Long-term structure
- Treaty-based, intergovernmental
Who runs the SFSA.
Governance sits with the Council and the Secretary General, under the SFSA Association Statutes. The SFSA is publishing this early and in full — including where the bench is still being built — because a young regulator earns trust by being straightforward about its own stage of growth, not by appearing larger than it is.
Gilles founded the SFSA after more than 30 years in international finance, including senior roles at Goldman Sachs and ABN AMRO, as CEO of Mirabaud Middle East, and as founder of Blue Ocean International Bank in Puerto Rico. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA from Middlebury College, and is a Lifetime Member of YPO.
As Secretary General, he is responsible for day-to-day direction of the SFSA under Council oversight, including publication of the Interim Guidance Notes and administration of the Public Register.
Join the Association.
SFSA is a Swiss Association (Verein). Membership is open to institutions and individuals supporting the development of financial standards for the space economy.
Observer
Non-voting standing. Receives publications, market views, and notice of published Interim Guidance Notes.
CHF 500 / year Placeholder SubscribeAffiliate
For individual professionals supporting SFSA's work. Access to publications and General Assembly attendance without a vote.
CHF 1,000 / year Placeholder SubscribeInstitution
Full voting standing in the General Assembly, early access to draft IGNs for comment, and eligibility for Council nomination.
CHF 2,500 / year Placeholder SubscribeFounding Member
All Institution benefits, plus permanent recognition as a Founding-era supporter of the SFSA. Limited to the Association's early years.
CHF 10,000 / year Placeholder SubscribeAll amounts are placeholders pending Council approval. Payments are processed via PayPal. For invoicing or bank transfer instead, contact gillesrollet@gmail.com.
Seven Interim Guidance Notes.
Each IGN is written to be read twice — once as the binding standard, once in plain terms. The plain-language summary is below; the full note, with its plain-terms callouts built in, is one click away.
Baseline Standards
The floor every SFSA-Authorised Institution must clear, in force now, until the Council adopts the full Regulatory Framework.
Authorisation Application Procedure
How to apply for SFSA Authorisation, start to finish, with every template included.
AML / CFT Framework
Risk-based anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing standards, layered on top of your national law, never replacing it.
Public Register
The single source of truth for who holds SFSA Authorisation today, and what happens if it's revoked.
Capital Adequacy
How much capital you hold, how you prove it's enough, and what you disclose — adapted for space-economy risk.
Enforcement Framework
What happens when a standard is breached, in a domain with no space court yet — and what SFSA is building toward.
Sandbox Rules
Where genuinely novel space-economy business models test under supervision, with the non-negotiables — AML/CFT and fit-and-proper — never relaxed.
The Public Register.
If an institution's own marketing says something different from what's below, the Register wins. Always verify status here before relying on any claim of SFSA Authorisation.
Space Bank is the SFSA's first Sandbox entrant, operating under IGN-007. It is not yet fully Authorised — its Sandbox experience is the evidence base the SFSA is using to finalise the standards every future applicant will be assessed against.
The Innovation Pipeline.
Not exhaustive — the space economy will generate business models that aren't imaginable yet. The Sandbox is designed to accommodate them as they arrive.
Horizon 1
- BaaS-model space economy banks
- Parametric launch insurance
- Constellation financing SPVs
- Dual-use trade finance
Horizon 2
- Orbital payment rails
- In-orbit manufacturing finance
- Space tourism premium finance
- Orbital data monetisation
Horizon 3
- Lunar surface banking infrastructure
- Cislunar cargo finance
- Resource-extraction pre-export finance
- Lunar real estate finance
Horizon 4
- Interplanetary payment infrastructure
- Space-based monetary systems
- Orbital sovereign wealth funds
- Human capital finance for deep space
Three tiers, built for a gap no court has closed yet.
The SFSA's power is contractual and reputational today, not sovereign — and we say so plainly, rather than implying otherwise.
English common law
The terrestrial anchor. LCIA arbitration in London, with the SFSA able to seek emergency court relief directly.
SFSA Enforcement Tribunal
A dedicated tribunal, purpose-built for space-economy financial disputes, as the caseload and the institution mature.
Space Law Transition Protocol
Migration to an applicable space law framework as one is constituted — the treaty-based destination, not the starting point.