SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: François Micheli, Roman Huber, Cristina Ess and Lea Ruckstuhl, Kellerhals Carrard
For the public sector, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) maintains a whistle-blowing website where private individuals and federal employees can report suspected irregularities and acts of corruption within the administrative units of the Federal Administration.
In relation to banks and other financial intermediaries, FINMA is authorised to enforce its supervisory pow - ers independently from any criminal investigation led by the prosecution authorities. In a landmark case, FINMA ordered a bank to terminate its activities in view of the bank’s involvement in corruption. In other cases, the procedures led to sanctions such as: • the confiscation of illegal proceeds; • naming and shaming; the summary penalty or deal is not rendered in a public proceeding and is noti - fied only to the parties involved in the concerned proceeding. • restriction or termination of activities; or • a ban on practising for several years for certain individuals. FINMA and the competent prosecution authorities have broad competencies to co-operate and exchange the information that they require in the context of their collaboration. The MROS also plays an important role in the enforcement process. It receives suspicious activity reports from financial intermediaries and, after analysis, forwards them to the criminal authorities for follow-up action. Such suspicious activity reports may relate to corruption as a predicate offence for money laundering, in particular (see 6.2 Voluntary Disclosure Incentives ). In 2024, 2.6% of the predicate offences that led to reports to the MROS concerned the bribery of Swiss or foreign public officials. 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies According to Article 3 of the SCC, the Swiss criminal authorities have the authority to prosecute corruption committed in Switzerland. According to Article 8 of the SCC, a bribery offence is considered to be committed both at the place where the person concerned acts or unlawfully omits to act and at the place where the offence has taken effect (see 3.2 Geographical Reach of Applicable Legislation ). The place of commission is broadly construed. Argu - ably, corruptive payments to or from a Swiss bank account are enough to create Swiss jurisdiction, even if all persons involved act outside Switzerland.
7. Enforcement Trends 7.1 Enforcement
Anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws are, in princi - ple, enforced by criminal authorities and ‒ to a cer - tain extent and less directly – by administrative bod - ies such as the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Money Laundering Report - ing Office Switzerland (MROS) (see 7.2 Enforcement Bodies ). Furthermore, an individual who has suffered harm from bribery or corruption may file a civil claim for compen - sation of damages, or surrender of profits based on the Federal Law on Unfair Competition. They can file the civil claim in separate civil proceedings or as a private claimant in the criminal proceedings (see 5.1 Penalties on Conviction ). For more than a decade, Switzerland has been very actively extending its network of bilateral treaties for assistance in criminal matters. This extension also covers previously unknown forms of international collaboration between prosecuting authorities, and grants powers to financial supervisory authorities such as FINMA and MROS (see 7.2 Enforcement Bodies ) to exchange information with their foreign counter - parts in their respective fields of activities. 7.2 Enforcement Bodies The enforcement of anti-bribery and anti-corruption offences lies principally with the prosecutor’s office at the cantonal or federal level. The OAG will lead the investigation if the offence has been committed to a substantial extent abroad or in more than one canton (where no single canton is the clear focus of the crimi - nal activity). An agreement is in place between the cantonal prosecution authorities and the OAG, which governs the question of jurisdiction. Remaining con - flicts of competence are decided by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court.
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