# VSB 20 Art. 33 — Banks and other financial intermediaries as contracting partners - **Rubric (DE):** Banken und andere Finanzintermediäre als Vertragspartner - **Rubric (EN):** Banks and other financial intermediaries as contracting partners - **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 Abs. 1: banks, securities firms (*Effektenhändler*), fund management companies (*Fondsleitungen*), life insurance companies (subject to Art. 42), KAG-Investmentgesellschaften and KAG-Vermögensverwalter, and tax-exempt occupational pension institutions with registered office in Switzerland give no declaration on the beneficial owners. Abs. 2: banks and securities firms domiciled abroad must give a declaration if they keep sub-accounts for unnamed clients and are not subject to adequate supervision and regulation on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Abs. 3: other financial intermediaries domiciled abroad must give a declaration if they are not subject to adequate prudential supervision and to such regulation. Abs. 4: where there are indications of abuse by a bank, securities firm or other financial intermediary, or general warnings by FINMA or the SBA about individual institutions or those of a particular country, a declaration is also to be obtained from them, or other measures taken. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that FATF member states and the Principality of Liechtenstein count in advance as countries with adequate supervision and regulation; a bank may recognise financial intermediaries of other countries as meeting this if it can assess this on the basis of special knowledge and enquiries and documents it. It sets out two group-based cases in which Abs. 2 and 3 may also be applied where the domicile country lacks such supervision. It states that Art. 33 also applies to contracting partners open only to financial intermediaries (e.g. SIX SIS AG, Euroclear, Clearstream, Fastnet), that it does not apply to fiduciaries (*Treuhänder*) unless they qualify as securities dealers, and that Art. 38 applies to collective investment schemes and investment companies (*Beteiligungsgesellschaften*) not covered by Art. 2 Abs. 2 GwG. ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — related: limits the beneficial-owner declaration for financial-intermediary customers and keeps it where supervision is inadequate or abuse is indicated. ## 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. 24 - Banks and other financial intermediaries|VSB 20 Art. 24]] — corresponding exemption from the controlling-person declaration (chapter 3), with its own conditions for foreign institutions. - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 58 - Exemptions from establishing controlling persons|GwV-FINMA Art. 58]] — lit. c–e exempt financial intermediaries in Switzerland and abroad, but only from the written declaration on the controlling person, not from the beneficial-owner declaration (GwV-FINMA Art. 59). - [[GwG Art. 2 - Scope of application (who is|GwG Art. 2]] — provision cited by the commentary (Abs. 2, Abs. 4 lit. b and Abs. 2 lit. e for casinos). ## Related VSB articles - [[VSB 20 Art. 42 - Insurance wrapper|VSB 20 Art. 42]] — referred to in the article text ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 33 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 33