# VSB 20 Art. 28 — Information to be documented - **Rubric (DE):** Zu dokumentierende Angaben - **Rubric (EN):** Information to be documented - **Chapter:** 4. Kapitel — Feststellung des wirtschaftlich Berechtigten an den Vermögenswerten (1. Abschnitt: Allgemeine Bestimmungen) - **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 If the contracting party declares that a third party is the beneficial owner, it must record that person's surname, first name, date of birth, nationality and actual residential address (or company name, domicile address and state of domicile) on *Formular A* (Abs. 1). Where the beneficial owner comes from a country in which dates of birth or residential addresses are not used, these items are omitted (Abs. 2). Exceptionally, a file note may replace the Formular A where the bank holds this information (Abs. 3), or simple copies of identification or other authority-issued documents (Art. 9 ff.) may supply it, with at least name and first name or company name on the form (Abs. 4). Own bank forms of equivalent content, FINMA video and online identification procedures, and later addition of account and custody numbers are permitted (Abs. 5–7). Abs. 1, 2 and 4–7 apply analogously to Formulare I, S and T (Abs. 8). ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that the bank may generally rely on the contracting party's information on the actual residential address; further enquiries are required only if there are irregularities (Art. 46). A Formular A is to be regarded as correctly completed if the contracting party adds wording such as "ich selbst" or "Kontoinhaber"; completing it further would be overly formalistic. The wording "verfügt die Bank über die Angaben" in Abs. 3 covers not only existing documents but also those supplied at the opening of the relationship. ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — the particulars recorded to identify the beneficial owner named by the customer. ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 60 - Beneficial owner – required information|GwV-FINMA Art. 60]] — parallel rule for GwV-FINMA Title 5 entities on the information to be recorded about the beneficial owner. ## Related VSB articles - [[VSB 20 Art. 9 - Identification on face-to-face meeting|VSB 20 Art. 9]] — referred to in the article text ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Further AMLR connections - [[AMLR Art. 22 - ID - verify customer + BO|AMLR Art. 22]] — VSB Art. 28 Abs. 1 requires documenting the name, birth date, nationality and residence of the beneficial owner of the assets via Form A; AMLR Art. 22(1)(a) for persons on whose behalf a transaction is conducted also requires place of birth and, where applicable, the national identification number. *(related)* - [[AMLR Art. 62 - Beneficial ownership information|AMLR Art. 62]] — Overlapping BO data points (name, date of birth, nationality, residence address); AMLR binds the entity or trustee to hold them, while VSB 20 Art. 28 has them stated on Form A (contracting partner's declaration) and documented by the bank. AMLR requires more (e.g. ID-document number). *(related)* ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 28 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20, Art. 28