Federal Council approves strategy on combating money laundering and terrorist financing

Press releasePublished on 20 March 2026

Federal Council approves strategy on combating money laundering and terrorist financing

Bern, 20.03.2026 - During its meeting on 20 March 2026, the Federal Council approved the strategy on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. With this first-ever comprehensive overview, the Federal Council is strengthening the framework, which will continue to protect the integrity of the Swiss financial centre in years to come.

Effectively combating money laundering and terrorist financing is one of the priorities of Swiss financial market policy. The Federal Council's strategy aims to establish an effective, risk-based, cooperative and innovative Swiss defence framework. It provides a common framework for existing strategies of the offices and authorities involved, and offers an overview of the situation. The internationally recognised Swiss defence framework is to be further developed and strengthened in line with the stated ambition.

In order to increase the effectiveness of Switzerland's defence framework, the focus in the coming years will be on introducing and using the transparency register approved by Parliament, developing practical instruments for criminal prosecution and stronger supervisory authorities. In order to identify risks even more effectively, improvements to the data bases and the preparation of the third national risk assessment are planned. Cooperation between federal units, between the authorities and the private sector, and within the private sector is also a priority, as is the continuous adaptation and strengthening of instruments and approaches in asset recovery.

The strategy is primarily aimed at the offices and authorities that make up the coordinating group on combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing (CGMF). The strategy aims to contribute to a better understanding of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, and to improve the coordination of measures at national level. It also underlines Switzerland's national and international commitment to combating financial crime, and is closely aligned with the national strategy for combating organised crime adopted by the Federal Council at the end of last year.

Document

• Federal Council
• Security
• Security: White-collar crime
• Economic & Financial Centre
• Economic & Financial Centre: Anti-money-laundering (AML)