Compliance articles
Regulatory commentary, FINMA updates, and practical guidance for AML programs.
Negative news screening for Swiss banks: the complete guide
What Swiss negative news screening actually requires, end to end: the regulatory framework, the screening lifecycle, source selection, evidence preservation, tooling decisions, and a full audit-readiness checklist.
Managing false positives in AML screening: a Swiss-aligned disposition framework
Auditors do not measure how few alerts you generated. They measure whether each disposition is consistent, justified, and reproducible. Here is the disposition framework that survives a Swiss AML audit.
Risk-based approach to AML screening: how often, how deep, for whom
FINMA expects screening cadence and depth to track customer risk, not flatten it. Here is how the risk-based approach maps to the three lines of defence in a way that survives an audit.
nFADP and AML files: what actually changed for Swiss FIs in 2023
The revised Federal Act on Data Protection has been in force since 1 September 2023, with no transition period. For an AML stack already built around 10-year retention, the headline question (destroy or retain?) has a clear answer. The harder questions are the ones nobody asks.
Negative news vs sanctions vs PEP vs adverse media screening: what's the difference
Compliance teams conflate sanctions, PEP, adverse media, and negative news screening. FINMA does not. Here is what actually differs across lists, sources, frequencies, and regulatory obligations.
What is negative news screening? A practical definition for Swiss compliance teams
What negative news screening actually is, why Swiss banks do it, when it happens, and what regulators expect to see in the documentation. The 101 explainer for compliance officers landing cold.
What Swiss AML rules actually require for screening evidence
AMLA Article 7, AMLO-FINMA Article 22, and FINMA Circular 2023/1 together set the bar for AML evidence in Switzerland. Here is what each one actually requires, and what that means for screening systems built for an examination.