GwG 21-customer lifecycle solution

The go-to digital self-service solution for verifying and updating customer data in compliance with GwG 21. Anytime, anywhere. Time-saving, individualized and with the highest data quality.

What are the implications of GwG 21 for financial intermediaries?

The revised Anti-Money Laundering Act (GwG 21) came into force on 01 January 2023. This is Switzerland’s response to a report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which identified weaknesses in Switzerland’s fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The GwG 21 revision entails tighter due diligence requirements and involves measures in the areas of beneficial ownership, actuality of client data and money laundering suspicious activity reporting.

What does this mean for financial institutions? They now face the challenge of implementing the regulatory requirements as quickly as possible and coping with the additional administrative work that this entails. Failing to comply with the obligations may result in reminders and sanctions from the Financial Market Authority (Finma).

Most important changes at a glance

Now, the identity of the beneficial owner must be verified instead of just stated.

Financial intermediaries must now carry out a periodic review of customer information irrespective of events. The extent and regularity of this review is to be decided on a risk basis.

GwG 21 confronts financial intermediaries with administrative challenges

It is all about KYC

Banks now have to know and document their clients by means of conclusive KYC data (Know Your Customer). On one hand, this refers to simple customer data such as name and address, but also information on the origin of the assets as well as the beneficial ownership and the purpose of the business relationship.
The financial intermediaries are obliged to check and update this KYC data regularly, irrespective of events. The periodicity and depth of the audit depends on the respective risk profile of the customer, whereby the determination of this risk has not been regulated by law and is the responsibility of the banks. Thus, for low-risk business relationships, customer details and supporting documents need to be reviewed and updated less frequently than for high-risk ones. However, depending on the risk profile, the data update may even be required on an annual basis.

Labor intensive GwG 21 review & actualization process

Processing

Customer & channel selection

Open case

Customer interaction

Contact customer

Identify customer

Customer confirms data

Post processing

Data reconciliation

Mutation / Archiving

Even if review and actualization only affect a portion of a financial institution’s customer base each year, this still involves time-consuming manual processes and an enormous administrative burden for customer advisors and the middle office.

What are your possibilities to digitize analog customer interactions?

Our experts will be happy to advise you on your use case.

Minimize effort with the GwG 21-customer lifecycle solution by mesoneer

Imagine you could easily digitize the multitude of customer interactions that can only be handled in analog form. How about completely automating tedious processes such as transcribing and scanning handwritten forms and manually reconciling customer data?
The self-service solution from mesoneer offers exactly that: the digital identification of the beneficial owner as well as the verification of customer data in accordance with the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act, anytime and anywhere – even for those customers who cannot be reached via e-banking.
The security check of the ID documents, the automatic reading of the ID data, and the digital storage of the latest ID copy and customer data eliminate time-consuming, manual steps and ensure maximum automation and the highest data quality.

This is how it works:

Data verification in 4 steps
Be ready
Scan front side of document
Scan back side of document
Verify contact details
Answering legal questions
Confirmation of the accuracy of data
...and done!

This is how it works:

Why the GwG 21-customer lifecycle solution by mesoneer?

Highest data quality

The data is automatically retrieved from the ID card scan and stored in a structured manner, at the same time an ID card copy is generated as well. This saves time, eliminates sources of error and ensures the validity of the data.

Multi-channel solution

Access to digital identification can be provided to the customer by means of different channels - be it by QR code in a letter or by link in e-banking.

Selfservice 24/7

Identification can be performed in four simple steps, autonomously, at any time and from anywhere.

Customizable

The KYC & legal questions as well as colors and branding can be customized according to your needs

Compliance

Our GwG 21-customer lifecycle solution complies with strict regulatory requirements such as the Anti-Money Laundering Act and laws on electronic signatures (ZertES and eIDAS). We manage the data in accordance with data protection laws in Switzerland (DSG) and the EU (DSGVO).

Highest Security

We host your data according to the highest security standards in Switzerland (ISO 27001 certification). All data and documents are securely encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard AES-256.

Want to know more?

Contact us!