Switzerland's Federal Council has set 1 October 2026 as the entry-into-force date for the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act and the new Act on the Transparency of Legal Persons and the Identification of Beneficial Owners. The package is designed to close gaps in Switzerland's framework for combating money laundering and terrorist financing by creating a transparency register for the beneficial owners of legal entities and by introducing due diligence requirements for certain high-risk advisory activities. The two acts and their related ordinances will take effect on that date, except for provisions relating to state notaries, whose implementation has been delayed to give cantons time to adapt their legislation. The start date also begins the transition periods for affected legal entities to register in the transparency register. In the implementing ordinances, the Federal Council said it had responded to consultation feedback by simplifying and reducing the cost of new tasks for cantonal commercial registers as far as possible, and by introducing thresholds to define more clearly what constitutes professional advisory activity. The timing was set to give stakeholders time to implement the new rules and to allow the Financial Action Task Force to assess the effectiveness of the measures in its 2027-2028 evaluation of Switzerland.
Federal Department of Finance (Switzerland)2026-06-12
Switzerland's Federal Council sets 1 October 2026 start date for revised anti-money laundering rules and beneficial ownership register
Switzerland's Federal Council has set 1 October 2026 as the start date for the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act and a new beneficial ownership transparency law. The measures create a beneficial ownership register for legal entities and add due diligence requirements for certain high-risk advisory activities. Related ordinances will also take effect then, except for provisions on state notaries, which have been postponed.