Swiss ban Gazprombank Switzerland from accepting new private clients
Switzerland's financial regulator has banned Gazprombank Switzerland from taking on new private clients after identifying serious shortcomings in its anti-money laundering processes.
The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) on Thursday said the Swiss branch of the Russian bank had “failed to carry out “adequate economic background clarifications into business relationships and transactions with increased money laundering risks”.
An investigation launched in 2016 into 30 Swiss banks based on information from the Panama Papers leaks found the Swiss subsidiary of the Russian state-owned bank to be in serious breach of anti-money laundering due diligence requirements between 2006 and 2016.
“No new relationships with private clients may be accepted and existing relationships must be strictly monitored,” FINMA said in a statementExternal link.
In a separate statement released on Thursday, Gazprombank Switzerland said it accepted FINMA’s decision. It said the measures related exclusively to its business with private clients and added that it was primarily engaged in corporate banking.
More
Panama Papers put Putin funds in Zurich
More
Thousands of emigrants’ descendants in Argentina demand Swiss citizenship
More
Switzerland’s most renowned trans person no longer wants to be a woman
More
Solothurn, the Swiss city that goes up to 11
More
Explainer: Switzerland gears up for driverless transport era
More
The hard battle for women’s visibility in the streets of Geneva
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.