# VSB 20 Art. 1 — Scope - **Rubric (DE):** Geltungsbereich - **Rubric (EN):** Scope - **Chapter:** 1. Kapitel — Einleitung - **Scope:** Banks & securities firms (incorporated via [[GwV-FINMA Art. 35 - Identification, controlling person and beneficial|GwV-FINMA Art. 35]]) - **Status:** In force (since 1 January 2020) ## Description Abs. 1: the rules of conduct (*Standesregeln*) apply to banks and securities firms (*Effektenhändler*) with all their business offices domiciled in Switzerland, but not to their foreign branches, representative offices and subsidiaries (but see [[VSB 20 Art. 11 - Issuers of authenticity certifications|Art. 11]], [[VSB 20 Art. 19 - Identification within the group|Art. 19]] and [[VSB 20 Art. 43 - Delegation of identification duties|Art. 43]]). Abs. 2: banks may not abuse their foreign branches and their foreign group companies active in the banking or financial sector to circumvent these rules. Abs. 3: the rules apply without restriction to accounts, passbooks (*Hefte*), custody accounts and safe-deposit boxes held under numbers or code words. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that, unless otherwise noted, the VSB and the commentary refer to all banks and securities firms, even where only one designation appears in the text for linguistic reasons. ## FATF - None directly. ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 35 - Identification, controlling person and beneficial|GwV-FINMA Art. 35]] — provides that for banks and securities firms the VSB 20 provisions apply to the identification of contracting parties and the establishment of the controlling person and the beneficial owner. ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Further AMLR connections - [[AMLR Art. 3 - Obliged entities|AMLR Art. 3]] — Both fix which institutions are bound; VSB 20 Art. 1 binds only banks and securities dealers with their Swiss-domiciled offices (not foreign branches, representations or subsidiaries), whereas AMLR Art. 3 also covers other financial institutions and non-financial obliged entities. *(related)* - [[AMLR Art. 17 - Branches and subsidiaries in third countries|AMLR Art. 17]] — AMLR Art. 17(1) requires the parent to ensure that third-country branches and subsidiaries with less strict AML rules comply with the AMLR or equivalent; VSB 20 Art. 1 Abs. 1 does not apply to foreign branches, representations and subsidiaries directly (see Arts. 11, 19, 43) but Abs. 2 prohibits banks from using foreign branches and banking or financial group companies to circumvent it. *(related)* ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 1 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 1