The fight against money laundering

The FATF, which was founded at a G7 summit in 1989, and is associated with the OECD and based in Paris, has 35 member states including Switzerland, and has developed 40 recommendations relating to combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Although these recommendations are not legally binding, they are recognised as such at the international level and are transposed accordingly into the national laws of the member states. Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the FATF in the fall of 2001 issued an additional 9 so-called special recommendations addressing a number of specific issues with the aim of combating not only money laundering as was the case at the outset, but also terrorist financing.  

The FATF conducts so-called mutual examinations of the various member states in order to assess the implementation of its recommendations. Following the mutual examinations, the FATF publishes the mutual evaluation reports on its website.

In 2012, the FATF revised its 40 recommendations, which in turn required a revision of the Swiss legal money laundering mechanisms. To this end, Swiss parliament adopted a law for implementing the revisions in December 2014, which came into effect on 1 January 2016.

The changes introduced include in particular:

• the duty to establish the identity of a controlling person for operating legal entities, partnerships, foundations and trusts;
• the duty to establish a natural person as beneficial owner;
• the duty of companies to keep a register that lists its shareholders;
• the introduction of qualified tax offences as a predicate offence to money laundering;
• the broadening of the definition of “PEP” (politically exposed person) to include domestic PEPs and PEPs belonging to intergovernmental organisations;
• additional due diligence duties for salespeople in the event of cash payments in excess of CHF 100,000.00.

Switzerland’s fourth FATF country evaluation was conducted in the spring of 2016, and included an assessment of the implementation of the recommendations that were revised in 2012. In December 2016, the FATF published the fourth mutual evaluation report, which states that Switzerland’s overall performance was good and its results were above average in comparison to the other countries that had already undergone evaluation. The FATF recognises the quality of the Swiss mechanisms for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.  

In terms of its legal mechanisms, Switzerland is categorised as “compliant” or “largely compliant” with 31 of the 40 recommendations. In the assessment of effectiveness, which is a central element of the FATF country evaluation, Switzerland scored well in seven of the eleven categories examined. Further to this, the FATF did not identify any significant shortcomings in the mechanisms.  

Philippe Amsler
Präsident, President, Mentha Avocats, Genève

Michel Y. Dérobert
Mitglied, ehem. Direktor der Vereinigung Schweizerischer Privatbanken (VSPB), Genthod

Tamara Erez
Mitglied, Rechtsanwältin, Centro Studi Villa Negroni, Vezia

Marcel Schmocker
Mitglied, Fürsprecher, LL.M., ehem. Managing Director und Senior Advisor General Counsel Division, Credit Suisse AG, Muri

Othmar Strasser
Mitglied, Rechtsanwalt, ehem. General Counsel ZKB (1992-2016), Richter Handelsgericht ZH, Au

Jean-Baptiste Zufferey
Mitglied, Rechtsanwalt, LL.M., Prof. für Verwaltungsrecht an der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Freiburg, Givisiez

Dominik Eichenberger
Sekretär, Rechtsanwalt, Friedli & Schnidrig Rechtsanwälte, Bern

Arun Chandasekharan
stv. Sekretär, Rechtsanwalt, Des Gouttes & Associés, Genève

Daniele Calvarese
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Avvocato, CSNLAW, Lugano

Marquard Christen
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Rechtsanwalt, CMS von Erlach Poncet AG, Zürich

Didier de Montmollin
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Avocat, DGE avocats, DGE Avocats, Genève

Christian Lüscher
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Rechtsanwalt, Lüscher Bischoff Rechtsanwälte, Zürich

Alexandre Massard
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Massard & Rossi Avocats au barreau, Neuchâtel

Peter Reichart
Untersuchungsbeauftragter, Rechtsanwalt, Wartmann Merker Rechtsanwälte, Zürich