The revised AMLA for lawyers and notaries: what changes on 1 October 2026
Advisory work on real estate deals and company structures now comes with anti-money-laundering duties. Here is what the law requires of your firm, and how Whisperit turns each duty into a step in the case file: triage, client identification, Form A and Form K, risk, approval and a log nobody can rewrite.
SRO application deadline for firms already advising: 1 December 2026
The LBA module is in early access. Our team enables it for your firm and sets it up with you.
Check whether your mandate is coveredIs your mandate covered?
Three questions about one mandate. The answer is an indication based on the law in force on 1 October 2026.
Question 1 of 3
Does the mandate involve one of these activities?
- Buying or selling real estate
- Creating a non-operational legal entity in Switzerland, such as a domiciliary company, or any legal entity abroad
- Managing or administering a non-operational legal entity
- Contributions to and distributions from a non-operational legal entity
- Buying or selling a legal entity through a non-operational legal entity
- Providing an address or premises as a legal entity's domicile or seat for more than six months
Indicative only, not legal advice. Some scope questions are still open and there is no case law yet. In case of doubt, check with your SRO.
Four figures to remember
1 Oct 2026
Entry into force
The revised AMLA, its ordinance and the new transparency register law apply. Covered advisory work is subject from that day.
1 Dec 2026
SRO application deadline
Lawyers and notaries already advising on 1 October must apply to a self-regulatory organisation before this date.
25%
Beneficial owner threshold
For an operating company: whoever holds 25% or more of the capital or votes, or controls it otherwise, and failing that the most senior member of the executive body. For a domiciliary company: whoever is ultimately entitled to the assets.
10 years
Retention
The documentation must be kept for ten years after the mandate or transaction ends.
Which mandates are covered
The law does not cover the profession as a whole. It covers lawyers and notaries who professionally take part, for a client, in financial transactions linked to the activities below, and separately anyone who provides a legal entity's seat for more than six months. Under the ordinance, advice that causally contributes to the transaction is enough.
In scope (art. 2 al. 3bis and 3ter AMLA)
- Buying or selling real estate
- Creating a non-operational legal entity in Switzerland, such as a domiciliary company, or any legal entity abroad
- Managing or administering a non-operational legal entity
- Contributions to and distributions from a non-operational legal entity
- Buying or selling a legal entity through a non-operational legal entity
- Providing an address or premises as a legal entity's domicile or seat for more than six months
Outside the scope, for example (art. 2 al. 4 let. f and al. 4ter AMLA)
- Court, arbitration, criminal and administrative proceedings, including preparing for or avoiding them
- Authentication of documents with no accompanying advice
- Real estate or legal-entity transactions arising from family, matrimonial property, inheritance or gift law, or between related persons
- Transfers of real estate or legal entities worth under CHF 5 million, where the price is paid and received only through banks or other financial intermediaries subject to the AMLA
- Buying residential property in Switzerland for one's own use, or as a replacement home
- Acting as an officer of an operating legal entity, or of a Swiss public-benefit foundation or operating association
When is the activity professional?
Any one of these criteria is enough (art. 12f AMLO): more than CHF 50,000 gross revenue per calendar year from the activity, more than 20 clients or 20 transactions per calendar year, or advice that must be presumed to concern third-party assets above CHF 5 million or transactions above CHF 2 million a year. The activity can also be professional under the general test of an independent activity aimed at lasting income.
Some scope questions are still open. There is no case law yet, and the OAR FSA/FSN is working with the State Secretariat for International Finance on further guidance.
What you must do on each covered mandate
The law sets the duties, and the regulation of your SRO says how to carry them out. For lawyers and notaries, that is usually the OAR FSA/FSN regulation in force since 1 October 2026.
Verify the client's identity
Use an admissible method: an original or certified copy of an identity document for a person, a registry extract for a company, or the other modalities the regulation allows.
Art. 8b AMLA · Reg. OAR FSA/FSN art. 24 to 28
Establish the beneficial owner
Establish who ultimately stands behind the client and, where the regulation requires it, obtain a signed declaration on the beneficial owner or on the controlling persons of an operating company (known in banking as Form A and Form K).
Art. 8b AMLA · Reg. art. 30 to 37bis
Understand the purpose
Record the object and purpose of the transaction or service you are asked to provide, in a client profile.
Art. 8b AMLA · Reg. art. 52
Classify the risk
Apply written risk criteria. A foreign politically exposed person is always higher risk. A Swiss or international-organisation PEP is higher risk when another risk factor is present.
Reg. art. 41bis and 54
Clarify higher risks
For a higher-risk mandate, clarify depending on the circumstances the origin of the assets, the client's business activity and financial situation, and the background of the transaction.
Art. 8b al. 3 and 8c AMLA · Reg. art. 43bis to 45
Document and keep
Keep a file from which an auditor can reconstruct what you did and why, for ten years after the end of the mandate.
Art. 7 AMLA · Reg. art. 49 to 52
Organise the firm
Name an internal AML specialist once two or more people in the firm are subject, set written risk criteria, and adopt internal directives above ten.
Art. 8d AMLA · Reg. art. 53 and 54
Report when the law requires it
Report to MROS on a well-founded suspicion. For lawyers and notaries, the duty applies only when you carry out a financial transaction for the client and the information is not covered by professional secrecy.
Art. 9 al. 1ter and al. 2 AMLA
Join an SRO
Affiliate to a FINMA-recognised self-regulatory organisation, which audits the firm periodically. The OAR FSA/FSN accepts only lawyers, notaries and their law firms.
Art. 14 AMLA
Each duty becomes a step in the case file
Whisperit adds an LBA record to every case. Your firm keeps every decision. The software makes sure each step is done, evidenced and logged, in the workspace where the matter already lives.
| Record | Case | Status | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| LBA-000121 | Sale of an apartment building | Active | Normal risk |
| LBA-000122 | Formation of a domiciliary company | Pending approval | Increased risk |
| LBA-000123 | Share purchase through a holding | Collecting | Risk not classified |
| LBA-000124 | Inheritance litigation | Not subject |
LBA-000122
Submitted with increased risk. A second approver has been notified in the app and by email.
- 1
Triage at case opening
Decide whether the mandate is subject to the AMLA and record the reason. When the answer is not obvious, a guided decision tree walks you through the legal criteria.
- 2
A secure link for the client
Send the client a personal link, protected by an access code, in French, German, Italian or English. The client can stop and resume, uploads identity documents directly, and receives a confirmation email once the declarations are submitted.
- 3
Identity verified, with the evidence
Record which admissible method you used, from original seen in person to certified copy or registry extract, together with the proof. A verified identification can be reused for the same client's next mandate.
- 4
Form A and Form K, generated
The declarations are produced as PDFs in four languages and fingerprinted before signature. The client signs through the link, or on paper and you upload the signed scan.
- 5
Risk, with the legal rules built in
Tick the risk factors that apply. The rules on politically exposed persons and FATF high-risk countries force the higher-risk classification, and a higher-risk record asks for the additional clarifications.
- 6
Four-eyes approval
A higher-risk record goes to a second approver, notified in the app and by email. When nobody else can read the record, an approver may accept it alone, and the log records it (Reg. art. 40). No record becomes active until identification, beneficial owner, client profile and risk are complete.
- 7
A decision log nobody can rewrite
Every decision is written to an append-only log. Past entries cannot be edited or deleted, and a deleted record is archived instead.
- 8
A register and a to-do list for the firm
The LBA compliance page lists every record with its number, status and risk, and shows each person what is waiting for them: submissions received, reviews due, approvals pending.
- 9
A separate space for suspicions
An escalation is visible only to the LBA officer and the person who raised it, with the secrecy analysis, the decision taken and, where relevant, the MROS reference.
It records your decisions. It does not make them for you.
Compliance remains the professional judgement of your firm, checked by your SRO. We would rather say plainly what the module does not do than let you find out after a demo.
- It does not screen names against sanctions or PEP lists. The client declares PEP status and you assess it.
- It does not file reports with MROS. It records the escalation and the reference of a report you make.
- It does not certify that your firm is compliant, and it does not decide whether a checkbox signature is enough for your practice.
- Forms for foundations and trusts, and the audit export of a record, are in development and not available yet.
What lawyers and notaries ask about the revised AMLA
When does the revised AMLA apply to lawyers and notaries?
On 1 October 2026, for lawyers and self-employed notaries who advise on covered transactions. Notaries employed by the canton are covered at a later date, once the cantons have adapted their law. Advisers already active on 1 October must apply to an SRO before 1 December 2026, and until the SRO decides they may continue only within existing client relationships.
Does the law cover litigation?
No. Court, arbitration, criminal and administrative proceedings are excluded, including work to prepare for or avoid them (art. 2 al. 4 let. f AMLA).
Is a notarial deed on its own covered?
No. Authentication of documents with no accompanying advice is excluded. What brings a mandate into scope is advising on the transaction, for instance on a real estate sale or on the creation of a domiciliary company.
Who is the beneficial owner?
For an operating company, the natural person who holds 25% or more of its capital or voting rights, or who controls it in another way. When nobody does, you identify the most senior member of the executive body instead. For a domiciliary company or another non-operational entity, the beneficial owner is the person ultimately entitled to the assets, with no 25% test.
What are Form A and Form K?
These are the names banking practice gives to two declarations: Form A establishes the beneficial owner, Form K identifies the controlling persons of an operating company. The OAR FSA/FSN publishes its own templates for both, which firms may adapt. Whisperit generates both declarations as PDFs from the information the client provides.
Do lawyers have to report every suspicion to MROS?
No. The duty to report applies to lawyers and notaries only when they carry out a financial transaction in the client's name or for the client, and when the information is not covered by professional secrecy (art. 9 al. 2 AMLA).
Which SRO should my firm join?
Any FINMA-recognised SRO that accepts you. The OAR FSA/FSN, created by the Swiss Bar Association and the Swiss Notaries Association, accepts only lawyers, notaries and their law firms, and publishes its regulation, templates and FAQ for advisers.
What if I keep advising without an affiliation?
Carrying out covered advisory work without being affiliated to an SRO is a criminal offence under art. 44 FINMASA. If you have not applied by 1 December 2026, or your application is rejected, the covered work must stop. If you applied in time, you may continue existing relationships until the SRO decides.
Does Whisperit make my firm compliant?
No software can. Whisperit makes sure every step the law requires is carried out, evidenced and logged for each mandate, so your firm can show its SRO what it did. The decisions, from triage to risk to approval, stay with your lawyers.
Can clients complete the form in their own language?
Yes. The client link, the emails and the generated Form A and Form K are available in French, German, Italian and English.
Does Whisperit screen PEP and sanctions lists?
No. The client declares whether they are a politically exposed person, and the lawyer ticks the risk factors. Whisperit then applies the legal rules automatically: a foreign PEP or a FATF high-risk country always forces the higher-risk classification, which then needs approval by a second approver, or an explicit, logged acceptance by a sole approver when the firm has only one.
How do we get access?
The LBA module is in early access. Book a demo and our team enables it for your workspace, then helps you complete your firm's LBA profile and name your approvers and LBA officer.
Sources
- Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA, SR 955.0), official French text, Fedlex
- Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO, SR 955.01), official French text, Fedlex
- OAR FSA/FSN (SRO SAV/SNV): duties of advisers
- Transparency register, Federal Office of Justice
This page summarises the law in force on 1 October 2026 for general information, as reviewed in September 2026. It is not legal advice. For your own situation, refer to the texts above and to your SRO.
Open your next mandate with the LBA record ready
In a demo we walk through a real mandate from triage to approval, then enable the module for your firm.