Revised CDB20 (VSB20) Published

The Swiss Bankers Association has published the revised Agreement on the Swiss Banks‘ Code with Regard to the Exercise of Due Diligence (CDB 20), which addresses, among other matters, the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). The revised agreement will come into force on 1 January 2020 together with FINMA’s revised Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO-FINMA).

The key changes in CDB 20 include:

• The threshold amount for the identification of the contracting partner on cash transactions has been lowered from CHF 25’000 to CHF 15’000;
• The rules on account openings without complete documentation have been tightened to include mandatory account blockings after 30 days and annulment of business relationships in case proper documentation cannot be provided;
• The FINMA circular regarding video and online identification has been formally incorporated into the CDB;
• The rules for the abbreviated process by the supervisory board have been updated.

The revised agreement can be found on the Swiss Bankers Association website under https://www.swissbanking.org/en/services/library/guidelines (published in German, French, Italian and English), a print version will be available to order from 2 August 2018.