Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) receives more SARs
In May 2022, Switzerland's Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) published its annual report. We briefly summarize the most important findings. In 2021, 5964 SARs were received regarding money laundering. 90 percent of the reports came from banks, of which more than a quarter were from major banks.
The 5964 SARs represent a 12% increase over 2020 or, in numbers, 660 more SARs than the previous year. This increase is about half the increase recorded in 2020 (25%) or 2019 (26%) compared to the previous year. With the introduction of goAML in January 2020, an increase in suspicious cases has already been registered but also the counting method has been adjusted to realize a comparability of the reporting figures.
The development shows that financial institutions are reacting more sensitively to money laundering. At the same time, international standards have also become stricter, announces MROS in its latest annual report. Most of the SARs arose from the use of transaction monitoring (32.7%). In 24.6% of the suspicious activity cases, the information came from third parties, and in 18% of the cases, the media provided MROS with the relevant information.
54.9% of the reports relate to fraudulent activities. For the most part, these were related to Covid loans secured by federal guarantees from Switzerland. The number of SARs related to pandemic-related loans has halved compared to the previous year 2020, yet around 1700 SARs from two pandemic years relate to Covid loan fraud. These account for a monetary value of 230 million Swiss francs or 224.3 million euros.
After fraudulent activities, document forgery is the second most suspected predicate offense in the SARs, accounting for 11.3%. Bribery of public officials was the cause of 8.1% of SARs. Suspected embezzlement accounted for 7.3% of the SARs, while 6.8% involved dishonest management of a business. The number of SARs concerning terrorist financing (1.4%) was low in Switzerland and related in each case to the law banning al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. 304 reports (5.1%) were made in connection with a suspicion with links to organized crime. However, MROS also points out that the reports were merely suspicions of money laundering and any predicate offenses. It is true that these suspicious activity reports ended last year in 1486 reports to the law enforcement authorities in the cantons and to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland. The 1486 reports filed represent a decrease of around 23% compared to the previous year. In 2021, 205 verdicts and penalty orders were issued in connection with previous MROS reports.
In some cases, Switzerland is in exchange with its international colleagues. For example, MROS received 784 requests for administrative assistance from 87 countries. Again, in 143 cases, the Swiss authority passed on information to foreign reporting offices, which is double the previous year's figure. In almost 400 cases, MROS passed on information to foreign financial authorities without being requested to do so.
