The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA is adapting the due diligence requirements for entering into business relationships via digital channels to technological developments.
For this purpose, it is revising the circular on video and online identification and is conducting a consultation on this until 1 February 2021.
Since the entry into force of FINMA Circular 2016/7 "Video and Online Identification", technological change has progressed further. The present partial revision of the Circular takes these developments into account in order to further ensure innovativeness, technology neutrality and effective anti-money laundering measures. FINMA will conduct a consultation until February 1, 2021.
Specifically, the aim is to enable financial intermediaries to further automate their identification processes at at least the same level of security and to improve their scaling. To this end, financial intermediaries now have an additional option for online identification, namely the reading and checking of data on the chip of the biometric passport. In principle, however, the need for accompanying security requirements, such as a bank transfer or now the reading of the chip of the biometric identification documents, is retained so that the security level of digital onboarding remains the same. In particular, they also take into account the fact that the inhibition threshold for attempted misuse in the digital environment may be lower than in the case of a personal interview due to the lack of personal contact.
To the FINMA media release, explanatory report, draft: amending decree FINMA Circular 2016/7, information on the consultation, key points