# VSB 20 Art. 17 — Publicly known legal entities, partnerships and public authorities - **Rubric (DE):** Allgemein bekannte juristische Personen, Personengesellschaften und Behörden - **Rubric (EN):** Publicly known legal entities, partnerships and public authorities - **Chapter:** 2. Kapitel — Identifizierung des Vertragspartners (3. Abschnitt: Juristische Personen und Personengesellschaften) - **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: where the identity of a legal person, partnership or public authority as contracting partner is generally known (*allgemein bekannt*), the fact that the identity is generally known may be recorded on file (*aktenkundig*) instead of the procedure under Art. 12 to 15. The identity is deemed generally known in particular where the contracting partner is a publicly listed company (*Publikumsgesellschaft*) or is directly or indirectly connected with one. Abs. 2: the simplified procedure under Abs. 1 is not permitted for domiciliary companies (*Sitzgesellschaften*), except those directly or indirectly connected with a *Publikumsgesellschaft*. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that the rule applies to all requirements of Art. 12 to 15 and that no particular form is prescribed for the file record; it may be a file note or a printout of the website of an exchange listing the contracting partner as a listed company. It states that Swiss authorities include federal, cantonal and communal authorities with their institutions and public-law corporations, and that public-law corporations, institutions and foundations count as an authority if they have a statutory basis and perform public tasks; the foreign concept of authority follows the foreign law concerned. ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — related: this article provides a simplified way of documenting the identification of the customer where its identity is generally known. ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 53 - Well-known legal entities, partnerships, authorities|GwV-FINMA Art. 53]] — parallel rule: Abs. 1 allows the identification to be waived for a generally known contracting party, and gives the same publicly-listed-company example; Abs. 2 additionally requires the reasons to be stated in the file, and Art. 53 contains no exclusion for domiciliary companies like VSB Art. 17 Abs. 2. - [[GwG Art. 3 - Verification of the identity of|GwG Art. 3]] — statutory basis for identifying the contracting party. ## Related VSB articles - [[VSB 20 Art. 12 - Identification of registered entities|VSB 20 Art. 12]] — referred to in the article text - [[VSB 20 Art. 13 - Unregistered entities and authorities|VSB 20 Art. 13]] — referred to in the article text - [[VSB 20 Art. 14 - Age of register extracts|VSB 20 Art. 14]] — referred to in the article text - [[VSB 20 Art. 15 - Verifying persons opening relationships|VSB 20 Art. 15]] — referred to in the article text ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 17 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 17