Take-Aways (AI)
  • The Fede­ral Coun­cil adopted the dis­patch on May 22, 2024 on the Trans­pa­ren­cy Act for legal entities.
  • The law inclu­des a Trans­pa­ren­cy regi­ster for bene­fi­ci­al owners, acce­s­si­ble to aut­ho­ri­ties and finan­cial intermediaries.
  • The regi­ster will not be public, but for Con­sul­tant and Finan­cial inter­me­dia­ries provided.
  • Cer­tain acti­vi­ties of Legal pro­fes­si­ons will in future be sub­ject to due dili­gence obli­ga­ti­ons under money laun­de­ring law.

At its mee­ting on May 22, 2024, the Fede­ral Coun­cil adopted the dis­patch on the Fede­ral Act on the Trans­pa­ren­cy of Legal Enti­ties and the Iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on of Bene­fi­ci­al Owners (Tran­sac­tion no. 24.046):

In par­ti­cu­lar, the law regu­la­tes the elec­tro­nic data­ba­se to be main­tai­ned by the FOJ. Trans­pa­ren­cy regi­sterin which, in par­ti­cu­lar, infor­ma­ti­on on bene­fi­ci­al owners is to be recor­ded. Alt­hough the regi­ster will not be publicly acce­s­si­ble, it will be available to various aut­ho­ri­ties and finan­cial inter­me­dia­ries and advi­sors for the pur­po­se of ful­fil­ling due dili­gence obligations.

In addi­ti­on, “cer­tain acti­vi­ties of legal pro­fes­si­ons” are sub­ject to due dili­gence and report­ing obli­ga­ti­ons under money laun­de­ring law.