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Pini, Mathias --- "Country Report: Customer due diligence in Switzerland" [2004] ELECD 134; in Pieth, Mark; Aiolfi, Gemma (eds), "A Comparative Guide to Anti-Money Laundering" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004)

Book Title: A Comparative Guide to Anti-Money Laundering

Editor(s): Pieth, Mark; Aiolfi, Gemma

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843766735

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Country Report: Customer due diligence in Switzerland

Author(s): Pini, Mathias

Number of pages: 38

Extract:

5. Country Report: Customer due
diligence in Switzerland
Mathias Pini

I INTRODUCTION
In addition to criminal law instruments, the administrative law area is also
significant and self-regulation is particularly important in this area, as
mentioned in the previous chapter, `Combating money laundering'. Customer
due diligence forms an essential part of self-regulation and hence earns a
chapter of its own.
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) may be described as the concept that aims
to reduce damage. It was developed by the banks to address their concerns
about the particular risks that face their industry and above all, the risk of
concentration in relation to their clients and the risk of reputation. However,
this concept was not applied consistently by all banks, so it was only after
several banking scandals that appeared particularly threatening to the industry
that produced the level of pressure required for action to be taken. With assis-
tance from the Swiss National bank, the concept CDD was developed by the
Swiss Banking Association in 1977 which for the first time bound all banks by
way of a code of conduct. CDD comprised the so-called five obligations,
namely the identification of the contracting partner, and the beneficial owner
(Know Your Customer Principle), the possibility of having to repeat identifi-
cation, the special duty to clarify in the case of unusual transactions and busi-
ness relations, the obligation to document, as well as the duty to implement
organizational measures to ensure that adequate internal systems function to
detect ...