Although Switzerland has
been praised for its recent efforts to combat money laundering in the country's
legendary banking sector, the task of enforcing regulation in the non-banking
sector is proving to be an uphill struggle for the new Money Laundering Control
Authority head, Dina Balleyguier.
According to the Swiss Money
Laundering Reporting Office's latest annual report, of the 311 reports of suspicious
transactions, only 75 came from the country's 7,000 non-bank financial intermediaries.
Of those 75, very few have resulted in prosecution, according to Swiss officials.
When she first took the
poisoned chalice as new head of the MLCA in October, Ms Balleyguier predicted
that the non-banking financial sector which includes securities firms, investment
advisers, currency exchangers, credit card companies, insurers and casinos would
rigorously oppose greater supervision and reporting. These new figures appear
to have confirmed her fears. However, speaking after the release of the report,
the rookie MLCA chief appeared to be taking a philosophical approach:
'It's not a bad law, but
you can't expect a new law to work in one year,' she mused. 'People who have
never been supervised before need to learn what supervision is.'
In addition to dealing with
the passive resistance of the non-banking sector and staffing shortages at the
Money Laundering Control Authority, Dina Balleyguier also faces the challenge
of deciding if any other sectors should be brought, doubtless unwillingly, under
the umbrella of greater supervision and reporting.
'There are about 10...open-ended
questions,' she explained recently. 'One is whether commodities traders must
have a license with us; another is whether asset traders with one-man offshore
companies should be included. Another is whether someone doing asset management
for their family should be included. It's very complicated.'