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Swiss govt to track corporate ownership in fight against money-laundering

Tuesday 18 October 2022 14:46 CET | News

The Swiss government has planned to create a central registry to track who owns legal entities in a move to fight money-laundering via shell companies.

 

The cabinet asked the finance ministry to draft specific proposals by mid-2023 that could increase transparency by making it easier to identify corporate owners. The move aims ‘to strengthen the prevention and prosecution of financial crime and thus the integrity and reputation of Switzerland as a financial centre and business location’, it said in a statement.

The Swiss government has planned to create a central registry to track who owns legal entities in a move to fight money-laundering via shell companies.

Switzerland’s course of action

Switzerland, whose banks make it one of the world's biggest managers of offshore wealth, has long sought to fight its old image as a place for criminals to stash ill-gotten gains, as it routinely exchanges bank account information with over 100 countries.

The country has faced international pressure to shed more light onto the shadowy world of corporate ownership, where many companies cloak the identity of the real beneficiaries. The goal was to create a central register for identifying owners and updating information about actual beneficiaries.

The register should be accessible to relevant authorities, but not to the public. The aim is to find a solution that is as effective and efficient as possible. The cabinet also asked the finance ministry to also consider steps to tighten anti-money-laundering rules, for example by widening their scope to include the legal professions. Parliament has in the past rejected the idea of subjecting lawyers and financial advisers to the same rules that banks face on reporting suspicious transactions.


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Keywords: AML, fraud prevention, compliance, financial crime
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
Companies:
Countries: Switzerland
This article is part of category

Fraud & Financial Crime






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