On April 29, 2019, in the presence of Jean Castellini, Government Counselor – Minister of Finance and Economy, Rupert Schaefer, Head of the Strategic Services Division and member of the Board of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and Philippe Boisbouvier, Acting Director of the Information and Control Service for Financial Circuits (SICCFIN) signed a reciprocal Memorandum of Understanding to enable them to cooperate in the execution of their respective missions to combat corruption money laundering and terrorist financing (AML / CFT).
The purpose of this protocol is to enable and facilitate the cross-border exchange of banking supervision information between FINMA and SICCFIN with regard to the different companies located in Switzerland or in the Principality, which belong to the same group.
The protocol also provides for the possibility for FINMA and SICCFIN agents when a parent company is established in Switzerland or Monaco to carry out on-the-spot checks of its subsidiaries or branches located in the other country.
The reciprocal memorandum of understanding strictly defines the exchange of information between SICCFIN and FINMA as well as on-the-spot controls. These exchanges and controls respect the principle of confidentiality to which all Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and the Supervisory Authorities are bound, the information obtained in the framework of the cooperation implemented being unable to be used only for the purpose of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The signing of this protocol by the Swiss and Monegasque supervisory authorities constitutes a new step in the framework of the recommendations made by the FATF as well as the provisions of the 4th and 5th (EU) anti-money laundering Directives.
This signature reinforces the existing cooperation between Switzerland and the Principality, SICCFIN having signed, almost 20 ago, as an FIU a cooperation agreement with its counterpart, the Swiss office of communication in matters of money laundering money (MROS).