Cash across the border today

The Swiss rule: information on request

Although the spallone with his briefcase of banknotes belongs to history, cross-border cash has not disappeared. Its legal treatment today illustrates how far the law has moved since 1976. Switzerland has no general duty to declare cash at the border. Art. 95 para. 1bis of the Customs Act of 18 March 2005 gives the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG) the task of supporting the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing within its customs duties.¹ The implementing ordinance of 11 February 2009 on the control of cross-border cash transfers turns this task into a duty of the traveller: persons importing, exporting or transiting cash must, when expressly asked by the customs office, give information on themselves, on cash of CHF 10,000 or more that they carry, on its origin and intended use, and on its beneficial owner. Where money laundering or terrorist financing is suspected, the customs office may ask these questions even below the threshold. The ordinance defines cash to include Swiss and foreign banknotes and coins in circulation as well as transferable bearer instruments, shares, bonds, cheques and similar securities. It allows the customs office to seize the cash provisionally under Art. 104 of the Customs Act, irrespective of the amount, and the data collected may be passed in individual cases to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) and the competent police authorities.² A person who refuses to give information on his identity or on the cash, or who gives false information, commits a contravention under Art. 127 para. 1 of the Customs Act, which is punishable by a fine.

The Swiss system of "declaration on request" is deliberately lighter than the European one. It reflects the Swiss view that cash is a legitimate means of payment and that the control of cash at the border serves the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The enforcement of foreign tax or exchange-control law lies outside its purpose. A traveller who brings CHF 50,000 in cash from Italy to Lugano commits no offence in Switzerland. If asked, he must say what he carries and why. If the customs officers suspect money laundering, they can retain the cash and report. The traveller's obligations under Italian law are a separate matter.

The anti-money laundering rules for financial intermediaries and dealers

Cash that reaches a Swiss bank meets the due diligence obligations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA). A bank must verify the identity of the contracting party and establish the beneficial owner when it opens a business relationship and, for occasional customers, when it carries out cash transactions above the thresholds set by the regulations. The banks' code of conduct requires the verification of identity for "cash transactions exceeding the amount of 15,000 Swiss francs".³ Where the circumstances of a transaction are unusual, for example when a client wants to deposit a large amount of cash without a plausible explanation, the bank must clarify the economic background and purpose (Art. 6 AMLA) and, if it knows or has reasonable grounds to suspect that the assets are the proceeds of a felony or of an aggravated tax misdemeanour, report to MROS (Art. 9 AMLA).⁴

Dealers in goods who accept cash are also covered. Under Art. 8a AMLA, dealers who accept more than CHF 100,000 in cash in a commercial transaction must verify the identity of the contracting party, establish the beneficial owner and keep records. The threshold applies cumulatively where a payment is made in instalments, and the duties do not apply where the payment above CHF 100,000 is made through a financial intermediary.⁵ The reform adopted together with the Federal Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities lowers the threshold for dealers in precious metals and precious stones and extends due diligence obligations to certain cash payments in real estate transactions. For a commercial transaction in precious metals or precious stones the relevant cash threshold is now CHF 15,000, and dealers in real property who accept cash in a commercial transaction are subject to the same duties as other dealers. The Federal Council brought the revised AMLA and the Transparency Act into force on 1 October 2026.⁶

The criminal law has changed most. Since 1 January 2016 an aggravated tax misdemeanour can be a predicate offence to money laundering under Art. 305bis of the Swiss Criminal Code. For direct taxes this covers tax fraud under federal and cantonal law where the tax evaded in a tax period exceeds CHF 300,000.⁷ Laundering of the proceeds of a foreign offence is punishable where the offence is also punishable at the place where it was committed (Art. 305bis para. 3 SCC). An Italian tax evasion of the kind that filled the deposit books of Lugano in the 1960s would today raise the question whether the funds derive from a predicate offence, a question that did not arise in the Swiss law of the period.

Notes

1. Customs Act of 18 March 2005 (CustA), SR 631.0, Art. 95 para. 1bis ("Im Rahmen seiner Aufgaben unterstützt es die Bekämpfung der Geldwäscherei und der Terrorismusfinanzierung"), inserted by the Federal Act of 3 October 2008 implementing the revised FATF Recommendations, in force since 1 February 2009 (AS 2009 361), bilingual text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/6/63/631.0-95-101.html. ↩
2. Ordinance of 11 February 2009 on the control of cross-border cash transfers (Verordnung über die Kontrolle des grenzüberschreitenden Barmittelverkehrs), SR 631.052, Art. 2 lit. b (definition of Barmittel), Art. 3 paras. 1 and 2 (duty to give information "auf ausdrückliche Befragung hin", threshold of CHF 10,000), Art. 4 (provisional seizure under Art. 104 CustA "unabhängig vom Betrag"), Art. 5 (contravention under Art. 127 para. 1 CustA) and Art. 8 (disclosure of data to MROS and the police), bilingual text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-fr/6/63/631.052-index.html. ↩
3. CDB 20 (as above), Art. 4(2)(g). ↩
4. Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 10 October 1997 (Anti-Money Laundering Act, AMLA), SR 955.0, Art. 3 paras. 1 and 2 (verification of identity, cash transactions of "considerable financial value" with occasional customers), Art. 4 (beneficial owner), Art. 6 para. 2 lit. a (clarification where the transaction "appears unusual, unless its legality is clear") and Art. 9 para. 1 lit. a (report where the intermediary "knows or has reasonable grounds to suspect" that the assets are "the proceeds of a felony or an aggravated tax misdemeanour"), English text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-index.html, Arts. 3, 6 and 9 at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-3-7.html, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-6-10.html and https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-9-15.html. ↩
5. AMLA, Art. 8a paras. 1, 3 and 4, text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/9/95/955.0-8a-14.html ("more than 100,000 francs in cash"; cumulation of instalments; exemption where payments are made through a financial intermediary). The version consulted is that in force from 1 July 2021. ↩
6. Federal Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities and the Identification of Beneficial Owners (TJPG) of 26 September 2025, final vote text, https://www.parlament.ch/centers/eparl/curia/2024/20240046/Schlussabstimmungstext %201%20SN%20D.pdf, annex, amendment of the AMLA, Art. 8a para. 2bis ("Im Rahmen eines Handelsgeschäfts mit Edelmetallen im Sinne von Artikel 1 Absatz 1 EMKG oder Edelsteinen beträgt die massgebende Schwelle im Sinne von Absatz 1 15 000 Franken") and para. 4 ("Den Pflichten nach den Absätzen 1 und 2 unterstehen auch Händlerinnen und Händler, die mit Grundstücken handeln, wenn sie im Rahmen eines Handelsgeschäfts Bargeld entgegennehmen"); LAWMEDIA, "Geldwäscherei: Bundesrat setzt schärfere Regeln und neues Transparenzregister in Kraft", law.ch, 17 June 2026, https://law.ch/lawnews/2026/06/geldwaescherei-bundesrat-setzt-schaerfere-regeln-und-neues-transparenzregister-in-kraft/ (Federal Council decision of 12 June 2026; entry into force of the revised AMLA and the TJPG on 1 October 2026). ↩
7. Swiss Criminal Code of 21 December 1937 (SCC), SR 311.0, Art. 305bis paras. 1, 1bis and 3, as amended by the Federal Act of 12 December 2014, in force since 1 January 2016 (AS 2015 1389), text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/de-en/3/31/311.0-305bis-372.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.