Summary of the report

The Global Forum rated Switzerland overall Largely Compliant with the international standard on transparency and exchange of information upon request, in particular concerning requests received from July 2015 to June 2018.

Since its last review in 2016, Switzerland has addressed several deficiencies, including ensuring availability of ownership information, in particular with respect of bearer shares, providing administrative assistance on deceased persons, improving its exchange of information process and doubling its number of staff working in the Exchange of Information Unit.

Some further improvements are recommended in this report. Switzerland should take additional measures for the availability of beneficial ownership information of all legal entities and arrangements. It should also ensure that the notification and appeal procedures do not unduly prevent or delay an effective exchange of information and that the confidentiality of the information received is always preserved when processing a request.

During the period under review, Switzerland dealt with 3 252 individual requests, 8 group requests and 16 bulk requests and sent 65 requests, and peers are overall satisfied. Switzerland should nevertheless manage its requests in a more timely and efficient manner, without applying unduly restrictive conditions.

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