# VSB 20 Art. 37 — Collective accounts and collective safekeeping accounts - **Rubric (DE):** Sammelkonten und Sammeldepots - **Rubric (EN):** Collective accounts and collective safekeeping accounts - **Chapter:** 4. Kapitel — Feststellung des wirtschaftlich Berechtigten an den Vermögenswerten (3. Abschnitt: Besondere Feststellungspflichten) - **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: for collective accounts and collective safekeeping accounts (*Sammelkonten und Sammeldepots*), the contracting party must give the bank a complete list of the beneficial owners of the assets, with the details required by Art. 28, and must notify the bank of changes (*Mutationen*) without delay. Abs. 2: accounts of operating companies (*operativ tätige Gesellschaften*) through which transactions in connection with professional services are processed are not regarded as collective accounts. The bank records this fact in its file. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary states that Abs. 2 lets banks waive establishing the beneficial owner where the contracting party is operationally active and holds assets for third parties within its professional services, for example debt-collection companies, property managers, factoring companies and auction houses. It states that each bank decides case by case, on a risk assessment, whether and when to apply this. Documentation has no formal requirements: it is met where the operating activity is evident from the commercial-register extract or other documents on file. ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — related: this article requires a list of the beneficial owners behind collective accounts and collective safekeeping accounts. ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwG Art. 4 - Establishing the beneficial owner|GwG Art. 4]] — statutory basis: Abs. 3 requires contracting parties holding collective accounts or collective safekeeping accounts to provide a complete list of the beneficial owners and to report every change without delay. - [[VSB 20 Art. 28 - Information to be documented|VSB 20 Art. 28]] — the details that the list must contain (Abs. 1 refers to Art. 28). - [[VSB 20 Art. 34 - Simple partnerships|VSB 20 Art. 34]] — the commentary states that groups such as *Guggenmusiken* and *Klassenkassen* without a special legal form are treated as simple partnerships with an ideal purpose under Art. 34, and their accounts are not collective accounts under Art. 37. ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 37 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 37