New (non-public) UBO register in Switzerland?
The Federal Council initiated the draft of a new law, among other things, to introduce a central register of the beneficial owners of Swiss legal entities.
At its meeting on October 12, 2022, the Federal Council decided that the Federal Department of Finance, in cooperation with the Federal Department of Justice and Police, should draw up a draft law by June 2023 with the aim of making it easier to identify the beneficial owners of Swiss legal entities. By increasing the transparency of legal entities, the Federal Council wants to combat financial crime as part of its anti-corruption strategy and strengthen the integrity and reputation of Switzerland as a financial center and business location. This development is an approximation of the international level of transparency in the identification of beneficial owners of legal entities.
Among other things, a central register of beneficial owners is to be introduced, combined with new obligations for risk-based updating of information on actual ownership. The precise outline of the draft law should be available by mid-2023.
Switzerland currently has no central or public UBO register. Only the shareholders of limited liability companies are publicly accessible in the commercial register. In addition, shareholders and UBOs of corporations are kept in company registers that are not publicly accessible. All member states of the European Union now have a central UBO register that is publicly accessible. In contrast to the EU UBO registers, however, it is currently intended that the The Swiss UBO register is not publicly accessible but only to the responsible authorities.
In summary, Switzerland is taking further steps to improve the identification of UBOs from legal entities. These steps are an approximation of the international development of increasing transparency. See press release here.