Federal Office of Private Insurance FOPI
Federal Office of Private Insurance FOPI
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FOPI News no.3
FOPI news no. 3 of 3rd November 2006 - FOPI revises its Ordinance on Measures to Combat Money Laundering
The Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI) has revised the Ordinance on Measures to Combat Money Laundering (MLO) of 30 August 1999. The amendments to the ordinance will come into effect on 1 January 2007. The insurance companies will be granted a transition grace period of one year to allow for necessary adjustments to the new regulations.
The revision takes into account the recommendations contained in the country examination 2005 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. At the same time, the revision of the ordinance will provide an opportunity to adapt the terminology to that of the new Insurance Supervision Act, as well as to bring certain phraseology, and the title of the ordinance
(to be MLO-FOPI) into line with the Money Laundering Ordinances of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (MLO-SFBC) and of the Money Laundering Control Authority
(MLO-MLCA).
The revision will result primarily in the following changes:
The Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI) has revised the Ordinance on Measures to Combat Money Laundering (MLO) of 30 August 1999. The amendments to the ordinance will come into effect on 1 January 2007. The insurance companies will be granted a transition grace period of one year to allow for necessary adjustments to the new regulations.
The revision takes into account the recommendations contained in the country examination 2005 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. At the same time, the revision of the ordinance will provide an opportunity to adapt the terminology to that of the new Insurance Supervision Act, as well as to bring certain phraseology, and the title of the ordinance
(to be MLO-FOPI) into line with the Money Laundering Ordinances of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (MLO-SFBC) and of the Money Laundering Control Authority
(MLO-MLCA).
The revision will result primarily in the following changes:
- Less stringent requirements with regard to documentation necessary for proving the identity of the contracting party;
- Strengthening reporting and declaration obligations for politically-exposed persons, as well as with regard to declaring links to terrorist or criminal organisations;
- Systematic risk monitoring of critical criteria to be met for the identification of the contracting party, as well as of business connections that carry a high degree of risk;
- Audit to be carried out external to the company as to the satisfactory fulfilment of due diligence obligations.
As parliament has not yet dealt with the dispatch adopted by the Federal Council on 1 February 2006 concerning the Federal Act on Financial Market Supervision (FINMAG), the potential impact of an integrated financial market supervision on the sphere of combating money laundering is not yet known at this point in time and has therefore not been taken into account in the revision of the ordinance.
The amendments to the ordinance will come into force on 1 January 2007. The insurance companies will be granted a transition grace period of one year to allow for necessary adjustments to the new regulations.
The amendments to the ordinance will come into force on 1 January 2007. The insurance companies will be granted a transition grace period of one year to allow for necessary adjustments to the new regulations.
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