SWITZERLAND FAILS TO BAN CASH TRANSACTIONS OVER CHF 100,000

Still the world's preferred destination for dirty money

Conferees in Switzerland, declining to act, though under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), have refused to recommend that cash transactions in excess of CHF 100,000 (USD$106,000) be banned, and instead recommended certain compliance record keeping requirements, according to the Committee on Legal Affairs. Cash transactions under CHF 100,000 will continue to have no reporting or record keeping requirements in Switzerland, to the consternation of FATF.

The new due diligence requirements proposed by the committee are:
(1) Identification of Beneficial Owner and Counter-parties.
(2) creating and maintaining a written record of all such transactions.
(3) Details of all unusual transactions shall be clearly stated.

Conferees are also grappling with issues involving Beneficial Ownership, Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), and the creation of a new tax crime involving evasion, among other important reforms, but will any real reform ever be enacted, so long as $2Tr sits in Swiss banks ? That's the question many observers are asking. Whether Switzerland is to be "blacklisted" by the OECD, for repeated failure to reform its anti-money laundering laws, for continues inaction, remains an open question.