Swiss Federal Council follows suit with transparency register

The Swiss Federal Council continues to focus on tightening the fight against money laundering and calls for a central register listing all beneficial owners of a company. A corresponding bill is to be drafted by mid-2023, which will facilitate the identification of beneficial owners and increase the transparency of legal entities. Access to this register will not be open to the public, but will initially be restricted to the relevant authorities.

This innovation supports a central core theme of the Swiss revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which will already come into force on January 1, 2023. The revision is intended to increase the focus on verifying the identity of beneficial owners and questioning the information provided by customers (see News: Revision of the Swiss AMLA - What lies ahead for Swiss banks?- CURENTIS Banking - Consulting and innovative digitalization).

The creation of a Swiss transparency register is a further step towards strengthening the prevention of money laundering in the area of financial crime.