# VSB 20 Art. 32 — Public authorities - **Rubric (DE):** Behörden - **Rubric (EN):** Public authorities - **Chapter:** 4. Kapitel — Feststellung des wirtschaftlich Berechtigten an den Vermögenswerten (2. Abschnitt: Ausnahmen von der Feststellungspflicht) - **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 Authorities (*Behörden*) do not have to give a declaration on beneficial ownership. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that Swiss authorities include those of the Confederation, the cantons and the communes, with their institutions and public-law corporations. Public-law corporations, institutions and foundations count as authorities if they have a statutory basis and perform public tasks. For foreign authorities, the concept is determined by the foreign law concerned. ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — related: limits the beneficial-owner declaration for authorities. ## Swiss counterparts - [[VSB 20 Art. 27 - Establishing the beneficial owner|VSB 20 Art. 27]] — the beneficial-owner declaration duty from which this article exempts. - [[VSB 20 Art. 23 - Public authorities|VSB 20 Art. 23]] — corresponding exemption from the controlling-person declaration (chapter 3). - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 58 - Exemptions from establishing controlling persons|GwV-FINMA Art. 58]] — lit. b exempts authorities, but only from the written declaration on the controlling person, not from the beneficial-owner declaration (GwV-FINMA Art. 59). ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 32 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 32