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- Art. 3 FC
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- Art. 43a FC
- Art. 55 FC
- Art. 56 FC
- Art. 60 FC
- Art. 68 FC
- Art. 75b FC
- Art. 77 FC
- Art. 96 para. 1 FC
- Art. 96 para. 2 lit. a FC
- Art. 110 FC
- Art. 117a FC
- Art. 118 FC
- Art. 123a FC
- Art. 123b FC
- Art. 130 FC
- Art. 136 FC
- Art. 166 FC
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- Art. 11 CO
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- Art. 50 CO
- Art. 51 CO
- Art. 84 CO
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- Art. 143 CO
- Art. 144 CO
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- Art. 148 CO
- Art. 149 CO
- Art. 150 CO
- Art. 701 CO
- Art. 715 CO
- Art. 715a CO
- Art. 734f CO
- Art. 785 CO
- Art. 786 CO
- Art. 787 CO
- Art. 788 CO
- Art. 808c CO
- Transitional provisions to the revision of the Stock Corporation Act of June 19, 2020
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- Art. 2 PRA
- Art. 3 PRA
- Art. 4 PRA
- Art. 6 PRA
- Art. 10 PRA
- Art. 10a PRA
- Art. 11 PRA
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- Art. 59a PRA
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- Art. 59c PRA
- Art. 60 PRA
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- Art. 90 PRA
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- Vorb. zu Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 2 FADP
- Art. 3 FADP
- Art. 4 FADP
- Art. 5 lit. d FADP
- Art. 5 lit. f und g FADP
- Art. 6 para. 3-5 FADP
- Art. 6 Abs. 6 and 7 FADP
- Art. 7 FADP
- Art. 10 FADP
- Art. 11 FADP
- Art. 12 FADP
- Art. 14 FADP
- Art. 15 FADP
- Art. 19 FADP
- Art. 20 FADP
- Art. 22 FADP
- Art. 23 FADP
- Art. 25 FADP
- Art. 26 FADP
- Art. 27 FADP
- Art. 31 para. 2 lit. e FADP
- Art. 33 FADP
- Art. 34 FADP
- Art. 35 FADP
- Art. 38 FADP
- Art. 39 FADP
- Art. 40 FADP
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- Art. 42 FADP
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- Art. 44 FADP
- Art. 44a FADP
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- Art. 47a FADP
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- Art. 50 FADP
- Art. 51 FADP
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- Art. 67 FADP
- Art. 69 FADP
- Art. 72 FADP
- Art. 72a FADP
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- Art. 2 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 3 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 4 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 5 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 6 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 7 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 8 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 9 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 11 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 12 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 16 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 18 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 25 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 27 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 28 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 29 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 32 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 33 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 34 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
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- Art. 2 para. 1 AMLA
- Art. 2a para. 1-2 and 4-5 AMLA
- Art. 3 AMLA
- Art. 7 AMLA
- Art. 7a AMLA
- Art. 8 AMLA
- Art. 8a AMLA
- Art. 11 AMLA
- Art. 14 AMLA
- Art. 15 AMLA
- Art. 20 AMLA
- Art. 23 AMLA
- Art. 24 AMLA
- Art. 24a AMLA
- Art. 25 AMLA
- Art. 26 AMLA
- Art. 26a AMLA
- Art. 27 AMLA
- Art. 28 AMLA
- Art. 29 AMLA
- Art. 29a AMLA
- Art. 29b AMLA
- Art. 30 AMLA
- Art. 31 AMLA
- Art. 31a AMLA
- Art. 32 AMLA
- Art. 38 AMLA
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
MEDICAL DEVICES ORDINANCE
CODE OF OBLIGATIONS
FEDERAL LAW ON PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
LUGANO CONVENTION
CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
CIVIL CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON CARTELS AND OTHER RESTRAINTS OF COMPETITION
FEDERAL ACT ON INTERNATIONAL MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
DEBT ENFORCEMENT AND BANKRUPTCY ACT
FEDERAL ACT ON DATA PROTECTION
SWISS CRIMINAL CODE
CYBERCRIME CONVENTION
COMMERCIAL REGISTER ORDINANCE
FEDERAL ACT ON COMBATING MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORIST FINANCING
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
FEDERAL ACT ON THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF CULTURAL PROPERTY
- I. Basis and purpose of the provision
- II. Material scope of the exclusion of criminal liability and liability
- III. Personal scope of application of the exclusion of criminal liability and liability
- IV. Requirement of good faith
- V. Legal consequences
- Bibliography
- Materials
I. Basis and purpose of the provision
1 The exclusion of criminal liability and liability pursuant to Art. 11 AMLA is found in the second section of the second chapter under the heading “Obligations in the event of suspected money laundering.” Despite the systematic classification of this provision, it does not establish any additional obligations. Rather, it is a protective or exonerating provision in favor of persons, companies, or authorities that are required to report money laundering or freeze assets for the purpose of combating money laundering. Although the provision on the exclusion of liability generally refers to the activities of financial intermediaries, the use of the word “who” suggests that the provision applies not only to financial intermediaries themselves, but also to their organs, employees, and auxiliary persons.
2 Art. 11 AMLA is intended to ensure that financial intermediaries who comply with their obligation to report suspicious assets within the meaning of Art. 9 AMLA or exercise their right to report under Art. 305ter para. 2 SCC do not face any civil liability for damages and/or criminal consequences. Art. 11 AMLA implements the protection required by the FATF Recommendations with regard to financial intermediaries that make reports or implement asset freezes.
3 According to Art. 14 SCC, the law cannot prescribe or permit the same conduct and at the same time make it a criminal offense. Provided that the conditions for a report or a freezing of assets are met, Art. 14 SCC thus offers the financial intermediary protection from prosecution, as the latter fulfills a legal obligation or exercises a legal right by filing a money laundering report. In other words, in view of Art. 14 SCC, the additional protection of Art. 11 AMLA would not have been necessary to exclude the risk of criminal liability.
4 Art. 11 AMLA also has a certain signaling effect within the legal framework, especially since the inclusion of this provision in the Anti-Money Laundering Act sends a strong signal in favor of financial intermediaries and underscores the legislature's commitment to a trustworthy financial center.
II. Material scope of the exclusion of criminal liability and liability
A. Reporting pursuant to Art. 9 AMLA
5 Reporting refers to the transmission of suspicious transactions or business relationships to the Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS). Art. 11 para. 1 AMLA refers to reports pursuant to Art. 9 AMLA, i.e. reports within the scope of the statutory reporting obligation. Art. 11 para. 2 AMLA additionally clarifies that the same protection applies if a financial intermediary exercises its right to report pursuant to Art. 305ter para. 2 SCC.
6 Reports to foreign reporting offices and the disclosure of information to third parties are excluded from the scope of Art. 11 AMLA. The justification provided in Art. 11 AMLA is also limited to reporting to the Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS). In particular, Art. 11 AMLA does not release the financial intermediary from its overriding duty to maintain banking secrecy. Due to general confidentiality obligations, the financial intermediary is therefore prohibited from disclosing to third parties any suspicious circumstances or other details relating to customer relationships and/or any reports of money laundering. Finally, the financial intermediary is subject to the prohibition on disclosure pursuant to Art. 10a AMLA.
B. Freezing of assets pursuant to Art. 10 AMLA
7 The suspicious activity report represents both the temporal or chronological and the systematic starting point for the freezing of assets. This covers the immediate freezing ordered by the financial intermediary on the basis of its own investigations, which is provided for in the context of a report pursuant to Art. 9 para. 1 lit. c GwG and is also limited to five working days. Furthermore, the subsequent freezing of assets is also covered, which takes effect as soon as the reporting office informs the financial intermediary that it has forwarded the reported information to a criminal prosecution authority. This provision significantly reduces the financial intermediary's liability risk. It is therefore hardly conceivable that the financial intermediary could be held liable on the basis of a criminal procedural freeze ordered by the law enforcement authorities. Since the financial intermediary must in principle comply with such an order, civil liability is ruled out from the outset. In these situations, Article 11 AMLA therefore constitutes at most an additional, but fundamentally dispensable, defense argument.
III. Personal scope of application of the exclusion of criminal liability and liability
8 According to the wording of Art. 11 para. 1 AMLA, the exclusion of criminal liability and liability applies to persons who make a report in accordance with Art. 9 AMLA or freeze assets in accordance with Art. 10 AMLA. The group of addressees of this provision is therefore determined by the group of persons obliged to act under Articles 9 and 10 AMLA.
9 Art. 11 AMLA covers all persons who are in any way involved in making the report or freezing the assets. This includes, in particular, organs, employees, and auxiliary persons whom the financial intermediary has called upon to perform its tasks. The protection therefore extends not only to the financial intermediary itself, but also to its organs, employees, and auxiliary persons, regardless of their function, position, or respective tasks. It therefore makes sense that the scope of protection should cover all persons who are legally obliged or authorized to make a report or to act on behalf of such a person.
10 Since February 1, 2009, self-regulatory organizations that submit reports in accordance with Art. 27 para. 4 AMLA have also been expressly covered by the scope of Art. 11 AMLA. Since January 1, 2016, financial intermediaries who disclose information in good faith on the basis of a lawful request for disclosure pursuant to Art. 11a para. 1 AMLA or Art. 11 para. 2 AMLA are also covered by the exemption from criminal liability and liability pursuant to Art. 11 AMLA. If, based on the analysis of information originating from a foreign reporting office, it becomes apparent that financial intermediaries subject to this Act are or were involved in a transaction or business relationship in connection with this information, then, since July 1, 2021, pursuant to Art. 11a para. 2bis AMLA, the financial intermediaries involved must also disclose all related information to the reporting office upon request, insofar as they have such information at their disposal. However, Art. 11 AMLA does not apply to persons who are neither subject to the reporting obligation under the Anti-Money Laundering Act nor entitled to exercise the right to report under Art. 305ter para. 2 SCC.
IV. Requirement of good faith
11 The exclusion of prosecution and liability requires that the report or the freezing of assets was made in good faith. The requirements for good faith must not be set too high in order to preserve the preventive purpose of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and thus not jeopardize the credibility of the measures to combat money laundering. It is irrelevant whether the report or the suspicions that prompted the financial intermediary to report were actually justified, whether the report was effectively forwarded, whether criminal proceedings were initiated, and/or whether a conviction was ultimately handed down in any subsequent criminal proceedings. In other words, the exclusion of criminal prosecution and liability does not only apply in cases where all the conditions set out in Art. 9 or 10 AMLA are met. The exclusion of criminal prosecution and liability is also justified if this was not the case. This applies if, at the time of the report or the freezing of assets, the financial intermediary assumed or could reasonably assume that the conditions were met.
12 Art. 11 AMLA thus also provides protection in cases where it subsequently transpires that the assets do not originate from a crime. Cases where the legal opinions are unclear or disputed and the financial intermediary applied a stricter standard than the Money Laundering Reporting Office or the criminal prosecution authorities are also protected. However, not too high requirements should be imposed on the financial intermediary's good faith.
13 Art. 11 AMLA is not only relevant for determining whether a report or a freeze could have been ordered at all, but also for assessing how the financial intermediary justified the suspicion when filing the report. Provided that the financial intermediary has clarified the suspicious circumstances to the best of its knowledge and belief or with due care and recorded them in the report, it cannot be held against the financial intermediary if these ultimately prove to be incorrect or if the report was not forwarded to the competent law enforcement authorities or if the subsequent criminal prosecution comes to nothing.
14 The Federal Supreme Court assesses the degree of attention required in this context based on an average level of attention that a reasonable person would normally exercise in the circumstances, taking into account the customary practice in the industry concerned. In assessing whether the financial intermediary has exercised the required degree of care, it is necessary to take into account not only the legal framework applicable at the time of the report or the freezing of assets, but also the customary practice in the financial sector or supervisory requirements.
15 Good faith must exist at the time of the report or the freezing of assets. If good faith ceases to exist after the report has been submitted or after the freezing of assets has been lifted, this is generally irrelevant. The exclusion of liability nevertheless applies. In connection with Art. 11 AMLA, the judge must place himself in the ex ante situation of the financial intermediary, i.e. he must only take into account the information available to the financial intermediary at the time of the report.
V. Legal consequences
16 Art. 11 AMLA exempts persons who make reports pursuant to Art. 9 AMLA or freeze assets pursuant to Art. 10 AMLA from civil and criminal liability, as these persons “cannot be prosecuted for violations of official, professional, or business secrecy” or “held liable for breach of contract.”
17 It has not been conclusively clarified whether the exclusion of punishment under Art. 11 AMLA also applies to Art. 173/174 SCC (defamation offenses), Art. 303 SCC (false accusation) and Art. 304 SCC (obstruction of justice). However, criminal liability is also unlikely to arise in this regard, provided that the financial intermediary exercises the due diligence required when making the report and does not deliberately include defamatory and false information in its report. In this context, the financial intermediary should also be able to invoke the justification provided by Art. 14 SCC: According to this provision, anyone who acts in accordance with a federal law shall not be punished. Too narrow a restriction of the applicability of Art. 11 AMLA to confidentiality obligations would be contrary to the purpose of Art. 11 AMLA. Accordingly, a financial intermediary acting in good faith in fulfilling its reporting obligation under Art. 9 GwG should be exempt from criminal liability for defamation, false accusation, and offenses against the administration of justice on the basis of Art. 11 GwG.
Bibliography
Herren C. Nicolas, L'obligation de communiquer: Les "soupçons fondés" de l' art. 9 LBA, SJ 2019 II, S. 107 ff.
Hürlimann-Kaup Bettina, Die Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichts zum Einleitungstitel des ZGB in den Jahren 2014 bis 2017 (2/2), ZBJV 155 (2029), S. 110 ff.
Hutzler Doris, Art. 11 Straf- und Haftungsausschluss, in: Ackermann, Jürg-Beat (Hrsg.), Kommentierung zu Kriminelles Vermögen – Kriminelle Organisation – Band II, Zürich 2018 (zit. KV-KO-Hutzler).
Lengauer Daniel/Ruckstuhl Lea, Recht für die Praxis, Compliance, Zürich 2017, S. 301 ff.
Luchsinger Roland J, Kommentierung zu Art. 11 GwG, in: Kunz Peter V./Jutzi Thomas/Schären Simon (Hrsg.), Geldwäschereigesetz, Stämpflis Handkommentar, Bern 2017.
Naef Francesco/Calvarese Daniele, I chiarimenti complementari nella lotta antiriciclaggio, NF 9 (2022), S. 488 ff.
Niggli Marcel/Carola Göhlich, Kommentierung zu Art. 14 StGB, in: Niggli Marcel Alexander/Wiprächtiger Hans (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar, Strafgesetzbuch und Jugendstrafgesetz, Basel 2021.
Porpiglia Gianni/Kunz Oliver M., Kommentierung zu Art.11 GwG, in: Peter Ch. Hsu/Daniel Flühmann (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar zum Geldwäschereigesetz, Basel 2021 (zit. BSK-Porpiglia/Kunz).
Schären Simon, Die Vermögenssperre als Instrument der Geldwäschereibekämpfung, GesKR 2018, S. 322 ff.
Strasser Othmar, Aufsichts- und verwaltungsstrafrechtliche Verantwortlichkeit bei Gremienentscheidungen in der Geldwäschereibekämpfung von Banken, SJZ 118 (2022), S. 691 ff.
Strasser Othmar, Die Geldwäscherei-Strafbestimmung von Art. 305bis StGB als Schutznorm für geschädigte Anleger? in: Cavallo Angela et al. (Hrsg.), Liber Amicorum für Andreas Donatsch: Im Einsatz für Wissenschaft, Lehre und Praxis, Zürich 2012, S. 867 ff.
Thelesklaf Daniel, Kommentierung zu Art. 11 GwG, in: Thelesklaf Daniel/Wyss Ralph/Van Thiel Mark/Ordolli Stiliano (Hrsg.), GwG/AMLA, Orell Füssli Kommentar, 3. Aufl., Zürich 2019.
Materials
Botschaft zum Bundesgesetz zur Bekämpfung der Geldwäscherei im Finanzsektor (Geldwäschereigesetz, GwG) vom 17.6.1996, BBl 1996 III 1101 ff., abrufbar unter https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/fga/1996/3_1101_1057_993/de, besucht am 11.7.2025 (zit. Botschaft GwG 1996).