The Swiss Federal Council adopted two consultation drafts which are supposed to implement the revised international recommendations on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In addition, untaxed assets will be blocked from financial intermediaries in Switzerland by extending due diligence requirements.

The Basel AML index attaches Switzerland a ML risk score of (is this 578) 5,78 (Status 28.2.2013) which places Switzerland on the ranking between Vanuatu and Mexico.

The key points of the proposed amendment bills are:

• Introduction of a disclosure obligation for holders of bearer and registered shares of unlisted companies in order to enhance the transparency of legal entities, and extension of the due diligence requirement for establishing the identity of beneficial owners. The proposed measures should also meet the requirements of the Global Forum.

• Duty to verify identity and risk-based due diligence requirements for politically exposed persons in Switzerland and international organisations.

• Introduction of a new predicate offence to money laundering in the form of qualified tax fraud in the area of direct taxation and extension of the existing predicate offence in the area of indirect taxation.

• Purchases of real estate and movables may be paid for in cash only up to a sum of CHF 100,000. It is mandatory for payments of larger sums to be processed via a financial intermediary subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

• The effectiveness of the reporting system is to be increased and the procedures for financial intermediaries (cut here) simplified.  CH_ML_Legislation_2013
  FATF_Report_Switzerland_2005