Lifting The Veil

Until the middle of last year, it was possible to hold shares in Swiss private companies on an anonymous basis. A Swiss company limited by shares, which had issued bearer shares, did not need to know who its shareholders were. In addition, with respect to unlisted Swiss companies, there were no rules requiring the disclosure of the beneficial owner for whom shares were held, irrespective of whether they had been issued as registered or bearer shares.

However, on July 1 2015, new rules aiming at increasing the transparency of ownership in Swiss companies came into force. From this date, the Swiss Federal Council put into effect the first part of the Federal Act of December 12 2014 on the implementation of the revised recommendations 2012 of the Financial Action Task Force (the FIA). The FIA amended several Swiss federal statutes, including the Swiss Code of Obligations (the CO). These amendments affect both shareholders of Swiss companies and the companies themselves.