Compliance, nominee services and fiduciary management are related to each other and there is a trade-off between confidentiality, costs and security.
Anti money laundering legislation: persons or companies that act as a financial intermediary have to comply with legal requirements, and this is enforced by the state with threat of sanctions.
Since we have not decided on the law and cannot change it, our opinion about the laws is irrelevant, and we ask our customers: please do not debate about money laundering laws with us.
In Malta, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations are supplemented by the Implementing Procedures issued by the FIAU. The Implementing Procedures provide their specific interpretation and need to be observed. The system is based on the latest Anti Money Laundering Directive of the EU.
In Switzerland, the FINMA is in charge of AML, the regulations are “Geldwäschereigesetz” (GWG) and Geldwäschereiverordnung (GwV). The latter has been revised and adapted to the fifth Anti Money Laundering Directive of the EU. There are some obligations of financial service providers and a there is a lower threshold for cash transactions of 15000 CHF. However, some of the EU regulations have not been implemented in Switzerland, for example due diligence requirements for lawyers.
In Slovakia, the Anti Money Laundering Act has been revised (Act No. 297/228). It contains extended obligations to identification and to register the beneficial owner, which has to be registered in the commercial register.
Fiduciary management: of course is sometimes a legitimate way to do business, if the client does not want to appear, for example if there is a competition clause in a work contract or if sales of other products are forbidden in an exclusive agency agreement. Such mandates are widely used but are not always the best solution and create high costs. Nominees are not always available, they have a conflict of interest, many of them first charge high fees for taking the risk and then create problems instead of supporting the client. Therefore we do not offer such services but we recommend clients to engage persons they know or to employ people on a part time basis.
If trusteeship is nevertheless required, there are solutions. Although another company of our group periodically undergoes all required money laundering examinations and has the necessary license, we look in the market for suitable service providers and establish a contact.
(updated September 2022)