A compliance programme for a Ticino trader or bank

Governance and risk assessment

No Swiss statute prescribes the content of a sanctions compliance programme for a trading company. The duty follows from the criminal provisions of the Embargo Act and the Goods Control Act, from the liability of the business owner under Article 6 ACLA and from the non-transferable duties of the board of directors under Article 716a of the Code of Obligations. The board must determine the organization of the company and exercise ultimate supervision over the persons entrusted with its management (Chapter F.II).¹ For banks, securities firms and other supervised institutions the duty is reinforced by the requirements of proper organization and of irreproachable business conduct under financial market law. A board that tolerates a trading desk without sanctions controls exposes itself to liability. A bank whose controls fail may also face enforcement proceedings by FINMA.

The programme begins with a risk assessment that identifies the company's exposure in concrete terms. It records the commodities traded and the countries of origin, transit and destination, as well as the currencies, banks and insurers used. It also identifies the nationalities of the employees and directors, the owners and their relationships, and the regimes to which the company is exposed through these factors. A Lugano steel trader with Italian employees, dollar financing, Turkish suppliers and buyers in Italy and North Africa is exposed to the Swiss, European and American regimes at the same time. Its risk assessment must say so and must name the person responsible for each regime. The assessment should be reviewed at least once a year and after every major package of sanctions.

Screening: persons, ownership, vessels and goods

Screening is the core of daily practice. Counterparties, their owners and directors, the banks involved and the vessels must be screened against the Swiss list published by SECO, the European consolidated list, the American lists of OFAC and the British list. A Swiss company that screens only against the Swiss list will miss persons who are listed in the European Union but not yet in Switzerland during the interval described above, and its Italian employees, banks and buyers will not.² Screening must extend to ownership. For each counterparty the company should establish the shareholders up to the ultimate beneficial owners, apply both the European and Swiss control test and the American 50 per cent aggregation rule, and document the result. Where ownership has changed shortly before or after a listing, the change should be treated as a warning sign.

Goods must be screened as well. Each product must be classified under the customs tariff and checked against the annexes of the Ukraine Ordinance, the Goods Control Ordinance and, where goods come from or pass through the European Union, the corresponding European annexes. Steel products require the evidence of origin of inputs described above, gold and diamonds require proof that they do not come from Russia, and goods on the list of common high priority items require an assessment of the risk of diversion. Vessels must be screened by their IMO number and checked for gaps in their transmission of positions, ship-to-ship transfers and recent changes of name or flag, which are the typical features of the shadow fleet.³

Notes

1. Federal Act of 30 March 1911 on the Amendment of the Swiss Civil Code (Part Five: The Code of Obligations), SR 220, Art. 716a para. 1 ("unübertragbare und unentziehbare Aufgaben"), no. 2 ("die Festlegung der Organisation") and no. 5 ("die Oberaufsicht über die mit der Geschäftsführung betrauten Personen, namentlich im Hinblick auf die Befolgung der Gesetze, Statuten, Reglemente und Weisungen"), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/2/22/220-716a-1023.html; ACLA, Art. 6 (above). ↩
2. SECO, "Suche nach Sanktionsadressaten", https://www.seco.admin.ch/de/suche-nach-sanktionsadressaten (search engine SESAM, https://www.sesam.search.admin.ch, "als reines Hilfsmittel", showing only directly sanctioned persons and no ownership or control relations; full list downloadable as an Excel file); SECO, "FAQ – Sanktionen der Schweiz" (above) ("Grundsätzlich liegt es in der Verantwortung der Unternehmen und anderen betroffenen Parteien, sicherzustellen, dass die Sanktionsmassnahmen jederzeit eingehalten werden"). ↩
3. Federal Council press release of 12 August 2025 (above) (105 further vessels, "mainly tankers that form part of Russia's shadow fleet"); OFSI, UK Maritime Services Ban and Oil Price Cap: Industry Guidance (above) (ship-to-ship transfers, refusal of price information, prices deviating from market levels). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.