There are three types of lists containing the names of individuals, legal entities, groups and organisations with links to terrorist activities. The lists differ in respect of the consequences associated with appearing on the list in question.
UN name lists
The
Ordinance on Measures against Persons and Organisations with Ties to Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida Group or the Taliban, which is also based on the Embargo Act, implements the measures agreed in various UN Security Council resolutions issued since 1999. The individuals, legal entities and groups affected by the measures are listed in Annex 2 to this ordinance, which is based on decisions made by the UN Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee in line with UN Resolution 1267. In addition to other sanctions, the ordinance also imposes a duty to notify the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (
SECO) about the financial assets of affected individuals, legal entities, organisations or groups transferred to or held in Switzerland and block the same.
Notifying SECO does not release a financial intermediary from the duty to notify the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland pursuant to Art. 9 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).
These ordinances on sanctions or UN name lists are enacted by the Federal Council and implemented by SECO. The News Service platform enables FINMA to inform the financial intermediaries concerned about any changes in financial sanctions. Please use this
link to sign up for FINMA's News Service and subscribe to "international sanctions".
SECO sanctions against Al-Qaida (in German)
FINMA News on sanctions (Al-Qaida/Taliban)
Non-UN name lists
Some states and organisations also produce their own lists of individuals, legal entities and groups with links to terrorist activities. They then implement independent measures similar to those of the UN. Some of these states, generally the USA, transmit their independently produced lists to other states and ask them to implement measures on the basis of UN Resolution 1373.
Switzerland handles these lists of states and non-UN organisations in one of two ways depending on the type of list involved.
Type 1 lists:
These lists contain the names of individuals, legal entities and groups believed to have links to Usama bin Laden, Al-Qaida or the Taliban. They are usually also submitted simultaneously to the UN Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee. This gives rise to reasonable grounds for suspicion, as defined in Art. 9 of the Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the Financial Sector, AMLA, that those named and their assets serve the financing of terrorism or are subject to the power of disposal of a criminal organisation. Consequently, the assets of anyone named in type 1 lists must be investigated immediately to ascertain the economic background, reported to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) and blocked in accordance with Art. 10 AMLA.
Type 1 lists up to 31 December 2008
Type 2 lists:
These lists contain the names of individuals, legal entities and groups that may have links to terrorist groups other than Al-Qaida and the Taliban network. Financial intermediaries who maintain client relationships with anyone named in a type 2 list or hold assets for which anyone named on such a list is the beneficial owner must comply with additional due diligence obligations when investigating the economic background and the business relationship in accordance with Art. 6 para. 2 AMLA and, where their investigation gives rise to reasonable grounds for suspicion, notify the MROS in accordance with Art. 9 AMLA and also block the assets in accordance with Art. 10 AMLA.
Type 2 lists up to 31 December 2008