Insights

FINMA conducted a survey on money laundering risk analysis at more than 30 banks in spring 2023 and identified significant deficits. All money laundering risks to which a financial intermediary is exposed must be identified, recorded, analysed and measured. This also includes setting a risk tolerance with threshold values. Thus, a complete money laundering risk management was expected, which FINMA finally published in its Guidance 05/2023 of 24 August 2023.

The Ordinance on Asset Management within the Framework of a Guardianship or Conservatorship (VBVV) governs the investment and safekeeping of the assets of persons with protective measures. The completely revised VBVV adopted by the Federal Council on 23 August 2023 will enter into force on 1 January 2024.

As of January 1, 2020, a notional income tax deduction for highly equity financed corpora-tions was introduced. Cantons with an effective profit tax burden of at least 18% are entitled to grant such notional interest deductions for cantonal taxes on certain qualifying equity. No deduction applies for direct federal tax. The reduction via application of the notional interest expense on equity capital is not granted on the entire equity, but on the security equity capital to be defined. The imputed interest rate is based on the yield for ten-year federal bonds, alt-hough a considerably higher third-party interest rate may also be applied for intra-group fi-nancing activities of the company.

Recently, especially since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, they have increasingly been in the focus of the general public: national and international sanctions. They are relevant and challenging for a large number of Swiss companies, especially for the financial sector. If sanctions are violated, there is a risk of reputational damage as well as criminal and regulatory consequences.

AML/KYC background checks on clients and prospects

Registration for VAT and submission of the VAT returns via the e-portal of the Federal Tax Administration will become mandatory from 1 January 2024. In addition, a one-year transition period will be granted.

Swiss voters approve OECD minimum tax/Pillar Two concept to embed into fiscal regulations.

The new Data Protection Act will come into force on 1 September 2023 – the deadline is approaching. What should financial service providers do in the next 3 months to drive the implementation forward? What are the biggest challenges?

In order to support you even better in dealing with unstructured data, our experts at Grant Thornton now work with the software “RelativityOne” from Relativity GmbH, Frankfurt am Main “Relativity”. With this, we at Grant Thornton are expanding our global offering in the field of forensic services. The cloud-based SaaS product enables us to better support you in multinational litigation, internal investigations and regulatory compliance.

According to Swiss statutory regulations, contributions, including paid-in surplus, effectuated by direct shareholders, that are openly disclosed and accounted for in the financials of the receiving corporation or cooperative are considered as reserves from capital contributions. The repayment of such capital contributions to current or future shareholders is treated the same way as the repayment of nominal share capital and as such is neither subject to income nor withholding tax.

A new bill is to be submitted for consultation this summer, which includes the introduction of a central register of beneficial owners of legal entities in Switzerland.

In the April issue of B2B Magazine, Fabian Schmid and Anael Rosalen shed light on the special features of de minimis portfolio managers and their differences from portfolio managers of collective assets.

After the licence is before the audit: Following the granting of the licence, asset managers and trustees must put the newly developed risk management and compliance framework into practice, which is very important for a smooth audit later on. A key challenge is the documentation requirements, because in the future asset managers must, for example, keep a "watch list" of any insider information that may exist and a "restricted list" of any prohibitions or restrictions on trading in certain financial instruments. In addition, asset managers and trustees will now be prudentially monitored by supervisory organisations.

Are you looking for a suitable partner for your compliance education and training? You already have an established compliance training concept, but would like to train your employees on selected regulatory topics in cooperation with proven experts? We offer you the planning, organisation and implementation of individual training events tailored to your company for yourself and your employees.

Confirmation of the practice of the Federal Tax Administration in the area of withholding tax in the case of a secondary adjustment.

Hundreds of independent asset managers or trustees have recently received or will soon receive a licence from FINMA. One of the most important associated changes is that these institutions must comply with comprehensive reporting or licensing requirements before implementing important entrepreneurial decisions such as the replacement of member of the board of directors or executive board, the change of organisation or the transfer of a significant shareholding. Initial experience shows that there are numerous challenges associated with the new obligations. In this article, the most important elements of the notification and authorisation obligation as well as sticking points for implementation in practice are outlined.