Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and Transparency — a part of the book Lugano as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos.
Part G treats the compliance architecture around Ticino's banks, traders and fiduciaries: trade finance, sanctions, the fight against money laundering and organized crime, and corporate transparency.
This part belongs to Lugano as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
Trade Finance in Lugano: Banks, Instruments and Risks — overview and summary
A steel trader in Lugano who buys a cargo of billets in Turkey and sells it to a mill in Lombardy rarely pays for the goods with its own money. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe trade finance market in Switzerland and in Lugano
The term trade finance covers every form of credit, payment security and risk transfer that a bank or insurer provides in connection with the movement of goods. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe banks that serve Lugano
The banks represented on the executive committee of the Lugano Commodity Trading Association give a fair picture of who finances the cluster. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDocumentary credits under UCP 600 and Swiss law
A documentary credit, also called a letter of credit, is an undertaking by a bank to pay the seller of goods a stated sum against the presentation of stipulated documents within a stated period. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyInternational standard banking practice: ISBP 821
The phrase "international standard banking practice" in Article 2 UCP 600 refers above all to the ICC's publication International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under UCP… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyStrict compliance in a Swiss steel case
The decision of the Federal Supreme Court of 9 November 2006 in case 4C.393/2005 is a lesson for every steel trader. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDocumentary collections, bills of lading and the control of the goods
A documentary collection is a cheaper and weaker instrument than a credit. The seller ships the goods and hands the documents to its bank, the remitting bank, with instructions to deliver them to the… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyLetters of indemnity and the bank's exposure
When the original bills are not available at discharge, the shipowner delivers the cargo against a letter of indemnity (LOI) from the charterer or the seller, typically on the standard forms of the… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDemand guarantees, standby letters of credit and Article 111 CO
Guarantees enter the life of a trading house in several forms. A buyer that pays in advance for a cargo of steel asks for an advance payment guarantee, which secures repayment if the trader fails to… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyISP98 and the standby letter of credit
The standby letter of credit is an American invention. Because United States banks were historically not permitted to issue guarantees, they issued letters of credit payable against a statement of… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe abusive call in Swiss case law
The doctrine of the abusive call ( rechtsmissbräuchlicher Abruf) is the Swiss counterpart of the fraud exception in English and American law. Its elements have been settled for decades. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyStructured and transactional commodity finance
The instruments described so far secure payment. Commodity finance in the narrower sense finances the trader's working capital during the cycle from purchase to sale. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyPre-export finance and prepayment
Pre-export finance (PXF) and prepayment finance turn the trader into a lender to the producer. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyReceivables finance, forfaiting, risk participation and credit insurance
A trader that sells on open account can finance its receivables by selling them to a bank or factor. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe frauds of 2020 and the retreat of the banks
The year 2020 was the worst in the modern history of commodity trade finance. The collapse of oil prices in March and April 2020, when the pandemic halted demand, exposed losses and frauds that had… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAgritrade International
Agritrade International, a Singapore trader in coal and palm oil, collapsed in early 2020 with liabilities of about USD 1.5 billion to some 15 banks. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySupervision, industry standards and capital rules
Swiss banking law contains no special rules for commodity trade finance. A bank that finances traders is subject to the general requirements of the Banking Act and the Banking Ordinance on… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyIndustry standards: the STSA guide and the Wolfsberg principles
In the absence of a regulatory text, two private standards define good practice for banks that finance Lugano traders. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyTrade-based money laundering and the screening of vessels and documents
Trade-based money laundering (TBML) is the use of trade transactions to move value across borders and disguise its criminal origin. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySanctions screening of parties, vessels and goods
Sanctions are the second compliance dimension of every trade finance transaction. A bank that opens a documentary credit must screen the applicant, the beneficiary, the banks involved, the vessel,… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDigital trade documents: MLETR, eUCP and Swiss ledger-based securities
The documentary system rests on the paper original. A bill of lading can be transferred only by delivering the paper with any necessary endorsement, and a bank can hold it as security only if it… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySwiss law: ledger-based securities and the bill of lading
Switzerland chose a different route. It did not enact the Model Law. Instead, the Federal Act of 25 September 2020 on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyPlatforms: the rise and fall of the consortia
The legal reforms came after a wave of technological optimism had already broken. Between 2017 and 2019 banks and traders founded several consortia to digitize trade finance on distributed ledgers. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyA practitioner's checklist for a Lugano trader's banking relationship
A trading house in Lugano that seeks trade finance should prepare the relationship as carefully as it prepares a major sale. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyLiving with the bank
Once the facility is in place, the relationship depends on transparency. A trader should inform its bank promptly of disputes with counterparties, of cargoes delayed or rejected and of losses on… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySanctions and Export Controls at the Southern Border — overview and summary
On 24 February 2022 the steel traders of Lugano woke up to a war that concerned them more directly than any other Swiss financial centre. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Embargo Act and its constitutional setting
Switzerland applied economic sanctions long before it had a statute for them. When the Security Council of the United Nations imposed an embargo on Iraq in August 1990, the Federal Council adopted… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyNeutrality and the decision of 28 February 2022
The decisive change came with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Switzerland had not adopted the sanctions of the European Union. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Ukraine Ordinance and the adoption of the European packages
The listings of 28 February 2022 were made under the old ordinance of 2014, which had been designed to prevent circumvention and was too narrow for the measures that followed. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAdopting the packages: a chronology
The following table summarizes the main steps of the Swiss adoption of the European measures. It is selective and records the measures that matter most for traders, banks and fiduciaries in Ticino. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyWhere Switzerland goes its own way
The adoption has never been complete. When it implemented the eighth package in November 2022, Switzerland extended the arms embargo partly to Ukraine, because the law of neutrality requires equal… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyTrade measures and the commodity trader
For Lugano no measure has had a greater effect than the ban on Russian iron and steel. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCoal and other economically significant goods
The fifth European package of 8 April 2022 prohibited the purchase, import and transfer of coal and other solid fossil fuels from Russia. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyGold, diamonds and the Ticino refineries
Three of the four large Swiss gold refineries are located in the Mendrisiotto and the Sottoceneri: Valcambi in Balerna, PAMP in Castel San Pietro and Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyFinancial measures: freezes, deposits, services and trusts
The asset freeze is the oldest and most familiar instrument. Article 15 of the Ukraine Ordinance freezes the funds and economic resources owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the natural… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDeposits, securities and Kryptowerte und Digital Assets
Beyond the freeze of listed persons, the ordinance restricts the business of Swiss banks with Russian clients in general. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyEnforcement in Switzerland: SECO, customs, prosecutors and courts
Switzerland has no sanctions agency comparable to the American Office of Foreign Assets Control. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Office of the Attorney General and federal jurisdiction
For serious cases Article 14 paragraph 2 EmbA opens a second track. If the criminal provisions of the Act apply, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland "may at the request of the relevant… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe record so far
The enforcement record shows many small cases and very few large ones. The following table summarizes the figures that SECO has communicated or that have been reported on the basis of its information. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyLugano's traders under sanctions
Chapter F.I has described how the opening of the former Soviet economies after 1991 brought the export companies of the large Russian steel groups to Ticino. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyPolitical and public reactions in Ticino
The presence of these companies became a political issue. On 15 April 2022 the Movimento per il socialismo (MPS) filed an interpellation in the Grand Council of the Canton of Ticino that named MMK… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyBanks, credit lines and the market shock of 2022
The economic shock came before the legal one. The reporting of March 2022 counted 123 commodity trading companies in Ticino, 51 of them specialized in minerals and metals with 575 employees, and… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAcross the border: European law and Italian enforcement
The European sanctions against Russia rest on two regulations of 2014, both adopted after the annexation of Crimea and amended by every package since 2022. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyYachts and villas: the Italian freezes
The Italian freezes became internationally known through the yachts and villas of Russian billionaires on the Ligurian and Sardinian coasts. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe "no Russia clause" and the Swiss exporter
Article 12g of Regulation (EU) No 833/2014, inserted by Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2878 of 18 December 2023, requires exporters in the Union to prohibit by contract the re-exportation to Russia,… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe United States and secondary sanctions
Neither Switzerland nor Italy is bound by American sanctions law. A Lugano trader that has no American employee, no American customer and no American goods might believe that the rules of the Office… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyExecutive Order 14114 and foreign financial institutions
The most important American measure for Swiss banks came on 22 December 2023. Executive Order 14114 authorized OFAC to impose full blocking sanctions on foreign financial institutions, or to prohibit… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyExport controls: dual-use goods, war material and the customs at Chiasso
Sanctions are directed against particular states and persons. Export controls apply to particular goods, whatever their destination. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe European dual-use regime and Italy
On the Italian side the corresponding rules are those of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021, the recast dual-use regulation, which has applied since… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyChiasso and the customs at the southern border
The physical front line of sanctions and export controls in Ticino is the customs. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyA compliance programme for a Ticino trader or bank
No Swiss statute prescribes the content of a sanctions compliance programme for a trading company. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyContracts: sanctions clauses, re-export clauses and disputes
Contracts are the second line of defence. Since 2022 trading contracts in Lugano contain sanctions clauses that allocate the risk of new measures. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyOrganized Crime, Money Laundering and the Ticino Front Line — overview and summary
On 31 August 2026 the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona opened the trial of a 59year-old man. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Anti-Money Laundering Act in 2026: architecture and supervision
The Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 10 October 1997 (Anti-Money Laundering Act, AMLA), SR 955.0, applies to two groups of persons. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe due diligence duties
The due diligence duties of Articles 3 to 8 AMLA are the core of the preventive system. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySelf-regulation and FINMA's expectations
Below the statute stand the ordinances and the self-regulation. For banks, the Agreement on the Swiss banks' code of conduct with regard to the exercise of due diligence (CDB 20) defines the details… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyReporting to the MROS: law, statistics and the Ticino share
Chapter D.IV described how the right to report of 1994 and the duty to report of 1997 came into being. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyWho reports and on what grounds
The banks account for the overwhelming majority of reports. In 2024 they filed 92.3 per cent (13,973 reports). Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Ticino share: prosecution authorities
The second Ticino figure concerns the prosecution authorities that receive forwarded cases. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe criminal law in application: Articles 305bis, 305ter, 260ter and 102 SCC
Article 305bis SCC punishes any person who carries out an act that is aimed at frustrating the identification of the origin, the tracing or the forfeiture of assets which he knows or must assume… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyInsufficient diligence: Article 305ter SCC
Article 305ter(1) SCC punishes any person who, as part of his profession, accepts, holds on deposit or assists in investing or transferring assets belonging to others and fails to ascertain the… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCorporate liability in practice
Article 102 SCC makes an undertaking liable for a felony or misdemeanour committed in the exercise of commercial activities if the offence cannot be attributed to a specific natural person because of… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Italian Mafia organizations in Switzerland: the official threat picture
The Federal Office of Police (fedpol) has described the presence of Italian Mafia organizations in Switzerland in consistent terms for more than a decade. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySwiss convictions for membership
Swiss courts have nevertheless convicted members of the 'Ndrangheta. On 20 January 2020 the Federal Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a 62-year-old Italian resident of the Bernese Seeland,… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Ticino front line: cases from 2000 to 2026
The following cases are reconstructed from judgments as reported in the press and from official statements. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe trusted man of Vacallo: the judgment of 29 December 2017
The case that most clearly links laundering, logistics and the Mendrisiotto was decided by the Federal Criminal Court on 29 December 2017. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCavalli di razza and the Molè clan (2021–2024)
In November 2021 the DDA of Milan, together with prosecutors in Florence and Reggio Calabria, ordered more than one hundred arrests in the operation known as Cavalli di razza. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe institutions: Ticino prosecutors, the federal prosecutor in Lugano and the court in Bellinzona
The division of labour between the cantonal and federal prosecution authorities determines who handles a money laundering or Mafia case arising in Ticino. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Office of the Attorney General and its Lugano office
The OAG is organized by type of crime. One division handles state protection and criminal organizations, another economic crime, which covers general economic crime, money laundering and… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCooperation across the border: Como, Milan, Reggio Calabria and Catanzaro
The Italian side of the Ticino front line is organized differently from the Swiss side. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyPolice and customs cooperation
Below the level of judicial assistance, police cooperation runs through a bilateral agreement on police and customs cooperation concluded in 2013 and through the joint Police and Customs Cooperation… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencySectors at risk: fiduciaries, domiciliary companies, real estate, cash and gold
Switzerland's national risk assessments provide the official baseline for the risk-based approach. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyFiduciaries and the cantonal licence
Ticino is the only canton that subjects the fiduciary professions to a cantonal licence, under the Law on the Exercise of the Fiduciary Professions (LFid) described in Chapter E.III. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyGold refiners and precious metals dealers
The three large refineries of the Mendrisiotto, Valcambi in Balerna, Argor-Heraeus in Mendrisio and PAMP in Castel San Pietro, are described in Chapter F.I. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe FATF evaluation and the reform of 2025–2026
The Financial Action Task Force evaluates its members in rounds of mutual evaluations that assess both technical compliance with the forty FATF Recommendations and the effectiveness of the national… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe legislative process
On 30 August 2023 the Federal Council opened the consultation on a federal register of beneficial owners and on due diligence duties for high-risk advisory activities. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAdvisers under the AMLA
The second element of the reform extends the AMLA to advisers who carry out certain high-risk activities without handling client assets. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCase typologies and a practitioner's checklist
The following typologies are anonymized composites. They are drawn from the cases described in this chapter, from the sectors listed by the MROS and from the risk factors identified in the national… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyTypology 3: the trusted helper
A former employee of a municipal administration in the Mendrisiotto, now working as an independent consultant, prepares applications for residence permits, company registrations and real estate… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyTransparency, Tax Cooperation and Beneficial Ownership — overview and summary
On 1 October 2026 two federal statutes entered into force that change the daily work of every company formation agent, fiduciary and lawyer in Lugano. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyFrom bearer shares to beneficial owners
For most of the twentieth century the bearer share ( Inhaberaktie, azione al portatore) was the ordinary instrument of the Ticino holding company. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Global Forum Act of 2019
The second break was the Federal Act of 21 June 2019 implementing the recommendations of the Global Forum, which entered into force on 1 November 2019. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Global Forum and the peer reviews of Switzerland
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the body, hosted by the OECD, that monitors the implementation of two international standards: exchange of information… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyWhat the figures show
The report of 2020 gives a rare statistical picture of Swiss administrative assistance. In the three years from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2018 Switzerland received 3,252 individual requests. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Transparency Act and the federal register
The Federal Council opened the consultation on a federal transparency register in August 2023, which ran until November 2023, and adopted its dispatch in May 2024 under the parliamentary number… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyReporting duties and the simplified procedure
The duty to report lies with the legal entity, and within it with the most senior member of the managing body. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe register, access and control
The register is kept electronically by the Federal Office of Justice in Bern. It is not public. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAdvisers, lawyers and the limits of professional secrecy
The second statute that entered into force on 1 October 2026 is the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyProfessional secrecy under Swiss law
The professional secrecy of the lawyer rests on two provisions. Art. 321 SCC punishes lawyers, defence counsel, notaries and their auxiliaries who disclose secrets confided to them in their… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe automatic exchange of financial account information and FATCA
Chapter E.II traced how Switzerland adopted the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), why it chose to collect data from 2017 and to exchange them from 2018, and how the Agenzia delle Entrate uses the… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe amendments of 2026
On 1 January 2026 amendments to the CRS adopted by the OECD in 2023 took effect in Switzerland, together with the legal basis for the exchange on Kryptowerte und Digital Assets discussed in the next… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyKryptowerte und Digital Assets: CARF, DAC8 and the Italian rules
The Common Reporting Standard was designed for accounts held with banks, custodians and funds. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyDAC8 and the Italian transposition
In the European Union the CARF was implemented through Directive (EU) 2023/2226 of 17 October 2023 (DAC8), which also introduced the CRS amendments, extended the exchange of advance cross-border… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyRulings, country-by-country reports and the minimum tax
Corporate taxpayers were drawn into the exchange of information through the OECD project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyPillar Two and the GloBE Information Return
The global minimum tax under Pillar Two of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework added a further exchange. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyAdministrative assistance and criminal tax law on both sides of the border
The exchange of information on request remains the instrument of choice when a tax authority investigates a specific taxpayer or group. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyItalian criminal tax law: Legislative Decree No. 74 of 2000
Italian criminal tax law is codified in Legislative Decree No. 74 of 10 March 2000. It distinguishes offences in the declaration from offences in the payment and collection of taxes. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyCriminal assistance between Switzerland and Italy
When the Italian authorities investigate a tax crime they can choose between two channels. Administrative assistance is requested by the Agenzia delle Entrate under Art. 27 of the convention. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe Italian side: monitoring, beneficial owners and the register
The Italian system of fiscal monitoring ( monitoraggio fiscale) introduced by Decree- Law No. 167 of 28 June 1990 rests on two pillars. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyThe reference to the Court of Justice and its judgment of 2026
On 15 October 2024 the Sixth Section of the Council of State referred six questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyConsequences for Swiss structures with Italian owners
For a Lugano practitioner the Italian register matters in three situations. The first is the Italian company or trust with a Swiss beneficial owner, such as a Ticino resident who owns an Italian… Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyA roadmap for clients with an Italian nexus
The first task in any Swiss-Italian mandate is to draw the structure as the authorities of both states will see it. Read more Lugano · Trade Finance, Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering and TransparencyConsistency as the governing principle
The decisive practical point is consistency. Every piece of information that a client or his advisers give to one authority will sooner or later be compared with what has been given to another. Read more