Regulator Lifts Acquisitions Ban On Julius Baer

Tom Burroughes

1 April 2021

Switzerland’s main financial regulator has lifted a ban on , aka Swiss Financial Market And Supervisory Authority, is “based on a status report from FINMA's mandated auditor, which is supervising the implementation of the measures ordered by FINMA and the Bank's own measures”, the bank said.

Last year, the watchdog said that Switzerland’s third-largest bank had fallen “significantly short” of fighting money laundering. The failings were linked to alleged corruption cases involving Venezuelan-owned oil group PDVSA and scandal-hit global football body FIFA. In recent years the Swiss financial services industry has been caught up in several global corruption cases (Petrobras, Odebrecht, 1MDB, Panama Papers, FIFA and PDVSA).

“Julius Baer welcomes the lifting of the ban on complex acquisitions given the significant progress the bank has made in strengthening its company-wide risk management, particularly with regard to money laundering prevention,” it added.