Compliance
Compliance (regulatory compliance) means conforming to comply with relevant laws and regulations. Together with KYC Spider in Zug Eurospider has in-depth compliance know-how.
Eurospider has carried out a simple experiment with the popular Levenshtein distance string metric. Around 600 names taken from the media were used to search for hits in a test database of more than 1000 entries. For each of the 600 names, the test database contained the full and correct name, which differed from the name used in the media. The names that were found for each of the 600 names were ranked by ascending Levenshtein distance. Finally, yield and precision were determined in the event of the top n ranks being sifted. What can we learn from this?
The Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) defines conditions without specifying how or with what tools these are to be achieved. These conditions are known as requirements. One example is Article 6 of the AMLA, which requires financial intermediaries to clarify the background and aims of politically exposed persons (PEP). In order to do so, they may carry out research online, question the client and/or compare their client base with a commercial PEP list.
In 1924, Albert Einstein wrote: “Tradition first makes the development of ideas possible, but later hinders it.” What held true for the new physics of his time holds true for the compliance processes of today.
E-ID is a digital identification method used to verify people’s identities in a trusted, secure way when processing online business transactions. E-ID is a key infrastructure element that makes processing business transactions more cost effective. It can also be used for e-voting and e-health applications. The negotiations in the National Council have shown that there are still some hurdles to overcome.
The fourth part of the name matching and revision series discussed yield and precision in name matching methods. In this fifth part, we will explain how these two measures of effectiveness are calculated. They are known as measures of effectiveness because they express the extent to which a name matching method can effectively compare two names and deliver information as to whether both names refer to the same person or organization.
Data Protection Act
The Swiss Data Protection Act underwent a complete revision in 2020, and its new version took effect on September 1, 2023, along with the new Data Protection Ordinance (DPO). The revision itself is complete, but its practical application continues to evolve. The topic of AI is particularly relevant: On May 8, 2025, the FDPIC confirmed that the DPA is technology-neutral and applies directly to all AI applications. In practice, this means, among other things, that users must know whether they are interacting with AI (transparency requirement, Art. 19), and that a data protection impact assessment is mandatory in cases of high risk—such as profiling or facial recognition (Art. 22). The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) is drafting a consultation document on AI regulation to be completed by the end of 2026. With this, Switzerland will implement the Council of Europe's AI Convention.
