# VSB 20 Art. 41 — Trusts - **Rubric (DE):** Trusts - **Rubric (EN):** Trusts - **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 The contracting party must record the required details on the trust by written declaration or on *Formular T*; the declaration must have content equivalent to the model form. Art. 39 Abs. 1 makes the beneficial-owner declaration for domiciliary companies (*Sitzgesellschaften*) subject to Art. 40 and 41. ## Context & interpretation The SBA commentary (joint for Art. 40 and 41) states that the actual settlor is the person who transfers assets into the trust, including one who hands assets to another intending that the latter contribute them. Beneficiaries include all persons entitled at signing, fixed or discretionary; where the current circle comprises more than 20 individually identifiable beneficiaries without a fixed claim to distributions, only the circle of beneficiaries (Ziff. 4b) need be stated; beneficiaries with a fixed claim must be named. If a domiciliary company as contracting partner declares that it holds assets for a foundation or trust as an "underlying company" (*unterliegende Gesellschaft*), it is identified as contracting partner and beneficial ownership is established directly on Formular S or T. For non-charitable purpose trusts, it is assessed individually whether natural and/or legal persons derive a direct or indirect economic benefit from the purpose; if so, they are treated as beneficiaries and recorded on Formular T (Ziff. 4). ## FATF - [[FATF R.10 - Customer due diligence|FATF R.10]] — identification of the persons behind a trust on the contracting party's declaration (Formular T). - [[FATF R.25 - Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements|FATF R.25]] — related: R.25 concerns information on the settlor, trustees, protectors and beneficiaries of legal arrangements; this article requires the contracting party to record the required details on the trust by declaration (the content is set in Formular T, not in the article). ## Swiss counterparts - [[GwV-FINMA Art. 64 - Groupings of persons, trusts, asset|GwV-FINMA Art. 64]] — parallel rule: for trusts (and groupings of persons and other asset units), a written declaration on the founder, trustees, curators/protectors or other appointed persons, named beneficiaries (or the category of possible beneficiaries), persons who can instruct the contracting party or its organs, and, for revocable structures, the persons entitled to revoke. Abs. 3 additionally requires a financial intermediary that opens a relationship or executes a transaction as trustee to disclose that status to the financial intermediary of the contracting party or to the transaction partner; VSB Art. 41 has no such rule. - [[VSB 20 Art. 40 - Foundations|VSB 20 Art. 40]] — the parallel rule for foundations, recorded on Formular S; the SBA commentary covers Art. 40 and 41 jointly. - [[VSB 20 Art. 39 - Domiciliary companies|VSB 20 Art. 39]] — general rule for domiciliary companies, subject to Art. 40 and 41 (Art. 39 Abs. 1); the commentary calls Art. 40 and 41 *lex specialis* to it. - [[VSB 20 Art. 28 - Information to be documented|VSB 20 Art. 28]] — the commentary states that its remarks on Formular A (Art. 28), except Abs. 3, apply analogously to Formulare S and T. ## Part of - [[VSB 20]] ## Further AMLR connections - [[AMLR Art. 58 - BO for express trusts|AMLR Art. 58]] — Bank rule for trusts: trust details declared in writing or on Formular T. The article sets no content itself; the form covers settlor, beneficiaries or beneficiary group, protectors, revocation holders and persons entitled to appoint the trustee, with the trustee as declarant rather than a listed item. *(direct)* - [[AMLR Art. 59 - Class of beneficiaries|AMLR Art. 59]] — Formular T item 4b asks for the beneficiary group(s) known at signing, in addition to any determined beneficiaries or where none is determined. The article text itself only refers to the declaration or form. No class-only carve-out as in Art. 59(2). *(related)* - [[AMLR Art. 64 - Trustee obligations|AMLR Art. 64]] — Both have the trust-side party give the bank information on the trust in CDD. VSB 20 Art. 41 fixes content via Form T (trustee status, type of trust, settlor, beneficiaries, protectors); AMLR 64(3) requires status disclosure plus BO and asset information. *(related)* ## Sources - VSB 20 (Vereinbarung vom 13. Juni 2018, in force 1.1.2020), Art. 41 - SBVg Kommentar zur VSB 20 (2020), Art. 40 und 41