Sanctions are not a banking-only topic. They affect any business with foreign partners, exports or payments for third parties. For family offices and fiduciaries they matter especially, because structures with companies in several countries can quickly touch a listed person.
Legal basis
The basis is the Federal Act on the Implementation of International Sanctions, the Embargo Act. On that basis the Federal Council issues ordinances on individual countries or themes. Switzerland implements UN sanctions and has in many cases aligned with the measures of its main trading partners, in particular the EU. The relevant ordinance and its annexes are always decisive.
Obligations
Typical measures prohibit making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to listed persons and entities, freeze assets they own or control, and restrict trade and services. Anyone holding or managing frozen assets must report them to SECO. Whether entities owned or controlled by listed persons are also covered is set out in the individual ordinance.
Screening
SECO provides the lists in a searchable database. Sanctions screening checks clients, beneficial owners, authorised signatories and counterparties at onboarding, when lists change and at transaction level. The challenge lies in name variants, transliterations and control chains: a company is rarely listed itself, but its controlling person may be.
Several lists
Anyone transacting in euro or US dollars or using foreign banks is in practice also bound by EU and US lists, because correspondent banks and counterparties apply them. For a Swiss business it therefore matters not only what the Swiss ordinance prohibits but also which lists its banks and clients require by contract. That dependency belongs in the risk assessment.