Compliance ensures that legal, regulatory and internal requirements are met. It is part of PostFinance’s risk management and helps to prevent reputational damage and sanctions. Together with all staff, Compliance ensures that PostFinance, customers and employees themselves are protected. As part of the behavioural concept and regular training, PostFinance employees learn to conduct themselves correctly within the rules so that everyone shapes the corporate culture together.
Compliance at PostFinance has effective supervisory and control systems, issues binding work instructions and holds relevant training courses. It supports employees in their everyday work and sets guidelines so that employees can avoid breaking rules – whether consciously or unconsciously.
Violations can have serious consequences: employees or the company itself risk sanctions. PostFinance’s good reputation is also at stake. The main objectives of PostFinance’s Compliance department are to protect this reputation, adhere to the law and standards and always remain trustworthy. And, by doing so, PostFinance strengthens trust in Switzerland as a financial center.
In order to enter into and conduct business relationships, PostFinance must meet the due diligence obligations stipulated by law. This means, for example, that it must know the nature and purpose of a business relationship, as well as the economic environment of its customers or the state where they are liable to pay tax.
These clarifications connected with due diligence obligations are essentially based on the following statutory provisions:
There are also the following specifications in relation to tax transparency which provide for an exchange of data if the tax residency of customers is abroad:
PostFinance adheres to statutory confidentiality obligations in relation to bank-client confidentiality, postal secrecy and the Federal Act on Data Protection when carrying out clarifications. Discretion is a fundamental requirement in day-to-day oper-ations and great importance is attached to the secure handling of data. PostFinance defines its working procedures in such a way that the confidentiality of customer data is always guaranteed.
Great emphasis is placed on complying with and implementing money laundering provisions which is a key task for PostFinance. The provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and the related legislation aim to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in the Swiss financial center. Importance is also attached to information about the customer and their transaction behaviour.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a US law that aims to ensure that US taxpayers pay their US taxes. Here are answers to FAQs on FATCA.
The automatic exchange of information (AEOI) is a standard process developed by the OECD in order to prevent tax evasion. Find out which information is exchanged, who is affected and which partner states Switzerland has drawn up an AEOI agreement with here.
