# GwG Art. 37 — Violation of the duty to report - **Rubric (DE):** Verletzung der Meldepflicht - **Rubric (EN):** Violation of the duty to report (penalty) - **Status:** In force ## Description Article 37 is the criminal penalty provision for breach of the reporting duty (Meldepflicht) under Art. 9 GwG. Abs. 1: whoever wilfully violates the Art. 9 duty to report is punishable with a fine (Busse) of up to CHF 500,000. Abs. 2: negligent violation is punishable with a fine of up to CHF 150,000; since 1 October 2026 the competent authority waives prosecution and punishment in minor cases. A former Abs. 3 was repealed in 2016. Both variants are pure-fine contraventions with no custodial component. The offence attaches to the specific triggers in Art. 9: known or reasonably suspected (begründeter Verdacht) links between the assets in a business relationship and predicate offences under StGB Art. 260ter/305bis, criminal or terrorist organisations, or terrorist financing (Abs. 1 Bst. a), breaking off negotiations because of such suspicion (Bst. b), or a name-match under Art. 22a (Bst. c), and to dealers' equivalent cash-transaction duty (Abs. 1bis). Since 1 October 2026 the Art. 9 duty also binds advisers (Abs. 1ter), and lawyers and notaries must report only when they execute a financial transaction for a client using information not protected by professional secrecy (Art. 9 Abs. 2). ## Context & interpretation Article 37 is one of only two penal provisions left in Chapter 6 of the GwG (with Art. 38); Art. 36, 39 and 40 were repealed with effect from 1 January 2009. The article must be read against the classic Swiss distinction between the Meldepflicht it sanctions and the Melderecht (right to report) under StGB Art. 305ter para. 2, which lets a financial intermediary report mere suspicion voluntarily, without breaching client confidentiality — Art. 37 punishes only the failure to make a report that Art. 9's higher, reasonable-suspicion threshold actually required. That threshold's statutory definition (Art. 9 Abs. 1quinquies, begründeter Verdacht) was only codified in 2023, underscoring how much of the practical difficulty in applying Art. 37 turns on where the suspicion line falls in a given case. ## Serves AMLR _none_ ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwG Art. 9 - Duty to report (to MROS)|GwG Art. 9]] — GwG Art. 37 fines intentional (up to CHF 500,000) and negligent (up to CHF 150,000) breaches of the Art. 9 duty to report. *(direct)* ## FATF - [[FATF R.35 - Sanctions|FATF R.35 — Sanctions]] — R.35 requires effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions for failures to comply with AML/CFT requirements; GwG Art. 37 fines breaches of the duty to report (up to CHF 500,000; negligence up to CHF 150,000). *(related)* - [[FATF R.20 - Reporting of suspicious transactions|FATF R.20 — Reporting of suspicious transactions]] — GwG Art. 37 fines wilful or negligent breach of the Art. 9 reporting duty. *(related)* ## Authoritative text > [!quote]- GwG Art. 37 — German original, SR 955.0, consolidated version of 1 October 2026 (Fedlex) > **Art. 37 Verletzung der Meldepflicht** > 1 Mit Busse bis zu 500 000 Franken wird bestraft, wer vorsätzlich die Meldepflicht nach Artikel 9 verletzt. > 2 Wer fahrlässig handelt, wird mit Busse bis zu 150 000 Franken bestraft. In leichten Fällen verzichtet die zuständige Behörde auf die Strafverfolgung und die Bestrafung. > 3 …