Switzerland: MROS registers suspicious assets of nearly CHF 3 billion

The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) registered suspicious assets of nearly CHF 3 billion in 2013. While the number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) fell slightly over the previous year, the total asset value of these reports remained high.

MROS received a total of 1,411 SARs from financial intermediaries in 2013. This represents a decrease of 174 SARs over 2012. The decrease is closely connected with the profound political upheaval in several countries, such as the Arab Spring, which led to a marked increase in SARs in previous years. The absence of similar events in 2013 therefore resulted in fewer SARs. In comparison with 2012, MROS also dealt with fewer case clusters, that is to say complex cases generating multiple SARs.

With fewer SARs, the Reporting Office had time to analyse each case in greater detail. The SARs that MROS forwarded to prosecution authorities were therefore based on a well-founded suspicion of money laundering. As part of the analysis process, MROS submitted requests for information on around 400 more natural persons and legal entities to foreign financial intelligence units (FIUs) than in the previous year.

As a result of the high quality of these analyses, MROS forwarded 79 per cent of all SARs to the prosecution authorities. This is a fall of approximately six percent over the previous year.