# GwG Art. 35a — Verification - **Rubric (DE):** Überprüfung - **Rubric (EN):** Verification (MROS checks a person against listed sources) - **Status:** In force ## Description Article 35a lets MROS, in fulfilling its tasks, use an automated retrieval procedure to check whether a person reported or denounced to it is recorded in one of five listed databases (Abs. 1): the national police index; the central migration information system; the criminal register information system VOSTRA; the state security information system; and the persons/files/case-management system used in mutual assistance in criminal matters. Access to any further information in those systems follows the access rules of the respective information system (Abs. 2). ## Context & interpretation Article 35a gives MROS an investigative capability beyond ordinary financial-intelligence analysis: rather than relying solely on the reporting intermediary's dossier, it can cross-reference a reported person directly against police, migration, criminal-record, state-security, and mutual-legal-assistance databases before deciding whether to forward a case to a prosecution authority under Art. 23. The provision was inserted in 2008 alongside the Federal Act on Police Information Systems. ## Serves AMLR _none_ ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwG Art. 35 - Processing of personal data by|GwG Art. 35]] — Both govern MROS's own information processing: Art. 35 sets the legal regime and the retrieval exchange with other authorities, Art. 35a MROS's retrieval checks in police, migration, criminal-record, state-security and mutual-assistance databases. *(direct)* ## FATF - [[FATF R.29 - Financial intelligence units|FATF R.29 — Financial intelligence units]] — R.29 requires the FIU to have timely access to financial, administrative and law-enforcement information; GwG Art. 35a lets MROS check reported persons by retrieval in the national police index, the migration system, VOSTRA, the state-security system and the mutual-assistance case system. *(direct)* ## Authoritative text > [!quote]- GwG Art. 35a — German original, SR 955.0, consolidated version of 1 October 2026 (Fedlex) > **Art. 35a Überprüfung** > 1 Zur Erfüllung ihrer Aufgaben kann die Meldestelle mittels Abrufverfahren überprüfen, ob die ihr gemeldete oder bei ihr angezeigte Person in einer der folgenden Datenbanken verzeichnet ist: > a. nationaler Polizeiindex; > b. zentrales Migrationsinformationssystem; > c. Strafregister-Informationssystem VOSTRA; > d. Staatsschutz-Informations-System; > e. Personen-, Akten- und Geschäftsverwaltungssystem im Bereich der Rechtshilfe für Strafsachen. > 2 Das Zugriffsrecht auf weitere Informationen richtet sich nach den für das jeweilige Informationssystem geltenden Bestimmungen.