Anti-money laundering law and the travel rule

Who is a financial intermediary

The Anti-Money Laundering Act was the first body of Swiss financial market law to reach the providers of services in Kryptowerte und Digital Assets. Under its general clause in Article 2 paragraph 3 AMLA, any person who on a professional basis accepts or holds on deposit assets belonging to others or assists in their investment or transfer is a financial intermediary. The Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance treats as a service related to payment transactions the act of helping to transfer virtual currencies to a third party where the provider has a continuing business relationship with the client or exercises the power of disposal over the virtual currencies. The same applies to the issue or management of non-cash means of payment, which include virtual currencies used as means of payment, and to the money or value transfer business. Trading for the account of others in foreign exchange and other assets is covered by a separate provision on trading activity.¹ An exchange that sells bitcoin against francs, a broker that buys tokens for clients, a custodian that holds keys for clients and a payment provider that accepts USDT for a merchant all fall within the clause. So does the issuer of a payment token, as FINMA had stated in its ICO guidelines. The provider of a non-custodial wallet, which supplies only software and never controls the client's keys, is not a financial intermediary because it does not hold or transfer assets of others.

Since the entry into force of FinIA on 1 January 2020, a financial intermediary under the general clause that is not supervised prudentially must join a self-regulatory organization recognized by FINMA. The former category of intermediaries directly supervised by FINMA for anti-money laundering purposes was abolished.² Most Swiss providers of services in Kryptowerte und Digital Assets are affiliated with the VQF in Zug or with one of the other organizations that have built specialist knowledge in the field. Some Ticino providers choose an organization close to the local fiduciary profession, such as the self-regulatory organization of the Ticino fiduciaries described in Chapter E.III. The organization supervises compliance with the duties of due diligence, conducts annual audits and can expel members, which leads to the loss of the right to operate.

The duties of due diligence

The duties are the same as for any financial intermediary: identification of the contracting party and of the beneficial owner (Arts. 3 and 4 AMLA), special clarifications for unusual transactions and higher risks (Art. 6 AMLA), documentation (Art. 7 AMLA), organizational measures (Art. 8 AMLA) and the duty to report to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) where there is a wellfounded suspicion (Art. 9 AMLA).³ For Kryptowerte und Digital Assets the duties have specific content. The provider must assess the origin of the tokens, which on a public blockchain can be traced through previous transactions. Most providers use blockchain analytics services that score addresses for links to darknet markets, mixers, sanctioned entities or fraud. A token that passed through a mixing service or a sanctioned exchange is a red flag requiring clarification.

FINMA lowered the identification threshold for exchange transactions in Kryptowerte und Digital Assets. Since 1 January 2021 the revised FINMA Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance requires the identification of the contracting party for transactions in virtual currencies from CHF 1,000, provided that they are not money or value transfers and involve no continuing business relationship, while the threshold for money exchange transactions remains at CHF 5,000. Transactions that appear to be linked are added together, and where the provider accepts cash or other anonymous means of payment for the purchase or sale of virtual currencies, it must take technical precautions to prevent the threshold from being exceeded through linked transactions within thirty days.⁴ The lower threshold reflects the risk that criminals split larger sums into small purchases at crypto ATMs or online exchanges.

Notes

1. Art. 2 para. 3 AMLA, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-2-5.html ("persons who on a professional basis accept or hold on deposit assets belonging to others or who assist in the investment or transfer of such assets"); Ordinance on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 11 November 2015 (AMLO), SR 955.01, Art. 4 paras. 1, 1bis and 2 (transfer of virtual currencies; virtual currencies as non-cash means of payment; money or value transfer), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/9/95/955.01-4-7.html, and Art. 5 (trading activity), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/9/95/955.01-5-8.html. ↩
2. Art. 14 para. 1 AMLA ("Financial intermediaries within the meaning of Article 2 paragraph 3 must be affiliated to a self-regulatory organisation"), as amended by Annex no. II 15 FinIA with effect from 1 January 2020, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-14-24.html; Art. 12 AMLA (supervisory authorities), amended by FinIA with effect from 1 January 2020, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-12-22.html. ↩
3. Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 10 October 1997 (AMLA), SR 955.0, Arts. 3–9, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-index.html (headings: verification of the identity of the customer; establishing the identity of the beneficial owner; special duties of due diligence; duty to keep records; organisational measures; duty to report). ↩
4. FINMA Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance of 3 June 2015 (AMLO-FINMA), SR 955.033.0, Art. 51a paras. 1 and 1bis ("1000 Franken"; linked transactions "innerhalb von 30 Tagen"), inserted by the FINMA ordinance of 4 November 2020 with effect from 1 January 2021, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/9/95/955.033.0-51a-55.html; Art. 51 para. 1 lit. a ("5000 Franken bei Geldwechselgeschäften"), https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-it/9/95/955.033.0-51-54.html. ↩

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 August 2025.