Global: Switzerland Implements Stringent Measures to Combat Money Laundering

Switzerland is poised to enact a series of robust measures aimed at combating money laundering within its borders.

These new regulations, slated for presentation to the Swiss parliament in the coming year, will place the responsibility of reporting risks on lawyers and consultants, while also heightening supervision of entities like trusts, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday (Aug. 30).

With its status as the world’s largest offshore bank account hub, Switzerland has been actively seeking to shake off its reputation as a destination for harboring illicit funds.

Under the impending rules, lawyers, accountants, and other professional consultants will be required to establish trusts, holding companies, or oversee real estate transactions, all while adhering to diligent due diligence practices and reporting guidelines.

Financial institutions, including banks, will be required to closely monitor their customers for possible sanctions violations. Furthermore, real estate transactions and cash payments involving gems and precious metals above a certain value will undergo rigorous anti-money laundering scrutiny, as per the report.

Switzerland’s efforts to combat money laundering align with global trends, as other nations also adopt similar measures.

This year, the U.S. Department of Treasury urged decentralized finance (DeFi) entities and the U.S. government to intensify efforts to thwart criminals from transferring and laundering unlawful proceeds. The treasury emphasized that a significant vulnerability exploited by wrongdoers stems from the failure of many DeFi services to establish anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) obligations.

In tandem, the British government introduced a new levy for regulated financial entities in a bid to bolster the nation’s AML initiatives.

Ted Datta, a financial crime compliance specialist at Moody’s Analytics, hailed the levy as “a crucial stride in uniting the parties committed to the fight against money laundering.”

Meanwhile, recent advancements in predictive artificial intelligence (AI) applications are aiding companies in enhancing their AML compliance programs.

Andrew Gleiser, Chief Revenue Officer at payment provider Aeropay, noted that AI deployment has proven instrumental in fraud prevention. This cutting-edge AI technology can efficiently detect patterns, correlations, and statistical anomalies in transactional activities that might evade conventional manual monitoring. Additionally, AI has been instrumental in refining AML procedures by assigning hyper-targeted priority categorizations for customer risk during the onboarding process.