UN sanctions: the Federal Council updates four ordinances

Context

In brief

• 25 September 2026: Federal Council decision
• Four ordinances on financial sanctions
• UN: terrorism and weapons of mass destruction
• Iran: exemption extended to international organizations

Key facts

• Date → 25 September 2026
• Place → Bern
• Decision → standardize and clarify the financial provisions
• Scope → four sanctions ordinances
• Basis → UN sanctions on terrorism and proliferation
• Precedent → 13 August 2025
• Iran update → exemption for international organizations and certain transactions

On 25 September 2026, in Bern, the Federal Council decided to standardize and clarify the financial provisions contained in four ordinances implementing UN sanctions relating to the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The decision therefore concerns a defined set of financial rules linked to sanction measures.

The four ordinances concerned

The first text concerns the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the second the Islamic Republic of Iran. The other two concern persons, groups, companies and entities linked to the ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda organizations, as well as persons and groups linked to the Taliban. The Federal Council indicated the same intervention for all four: clarifying and harmonizing the financial provisions.

The ordinances implement, in particular, the sanctions of the United Nations Security Council on the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The press release thus links the amendment to the sanctions of the United Nations Security Council.

The exemption provided for Iran

The most narrowly defined development concerns the ordinance establishing measures against the Islamic Republic of Iran. From now on, international organizations will benefit from an exemption from notification and authorization requirements for certain transactions. The same development is also described as extending to international organizations the exemptions from notification and authorization requirements for transfers of assets provided for by the ordinance.

The source does not list the transactions concerned in this press release and does not indicate any amounts. To correctly understand the practical effect, the starting point therefore remains the distinction between the ordinance on Iran and the other three. For banking topics not connected to the sanctions regime, the site offers a guide to conti bancari in Svizzera.

The 2025 step

The changes of 25 September 2026 correspond to the clarifications and harmonizations introduced by the Federal Council on 13 August 2025 in the respective ordinances, which at that time were based on European Union sanctions. With the new legislative act, the Federal Council now emphasizes the financial measures based on the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The date and the dual reference — European Union and UN — define the regulatory trajectory described in the press release.

Operational details

What changes for interpreting the rules

For those who must assess a financial transaction falling under one of the four ordinances, the novelty is not a monetary threshold, because the communiqué does not specify one. The practical point is the uniform rewriting of the financial provisions and, for Iran, the extension of an exemption to a specific category: international organizations.

For an activity in Switzerland, the distinction is concrete: the harmonization concerns the wording of the financial provisions, while the Iranian exemption is linked to the category of the entity and the nature of the transaction.

Before the act of 25 September 2026, the source described exemptions for asset transfers in the ordinance on Iran, but did not present them as extended to international organizations. Following the decision, these organizations benefit from the exemption for certain transactions. However, the wording does not authorize turning the novelty into a general exemption: the text retains the reference both to the specified transactions and to the Iranian ordinance.

For the ordinances concerning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, persons and entities linked to ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda, and persons and groups linked to the Taliban, the communiqué speaks of clarification and harmonization of the financial provisions. It does not attribute to these three areas the extension of the exemption provided for Iran. This distinction avoids applying the novelty mechanically to all measures.

Two sanctions bases to keep separate

The comparison with 13 August 2025 adds a second level of interpretation. The clarifications and harmonizations of 2025 were based on European Union sanctions; the act of 25 September 2026 emphasizes financial measures based on resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Anyone analyzing the text must therefore verify which ordinance they are consulting and which sanctions basis is invoked, without confusing the two stages.

The communiqué does not provide a list of documents, offices, forms or deadlines for notifications and authorizations. Consequently, everyday exchange-rate tools do not replace the regulatory text: comparatore CHF/EUR is used for currency comparison, not to determine whether a transaction benefits from the exemption.

Key points

A five-step verification

The process can begin with the PDF made available together with the press release, entitled Ordinance concerning the amendment of ordinances on sanctions in relation to proliferation and terrorist financing. The verification must remain anchored in the text of the ordinances, because the source announces the principle of the amendment but does not provide the list of transactions concerned.

1. Identify the relevant ordinance. The first step is to distinguish between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the persons, groups, companies and entities linked to ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda, as well as the persons and groups linked to the Taliban. This classification prevents a rule from one text being automatically transferred to another.

2. Isolate the financial aspect. The decision concerns financial provisions; it is therefore necessary to read the passage relating to notification, authorization or transfers of assets, when the applicable ordinance refers to them.

3. If the reference is Iran, check the two conditions described in the press release: the transaction must fall among those specified and the entity must be an international organization in order to assess the announced exemption.

4. Verify the basis of the measure. The text must be read while keeping distinct the previous clarification of 13 agosto 2025, based on European Union sanctions, from the emphasis placed on 25 settembre 2026 on the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

5. Retain the correct reference. The document indicated in the source is the Ordinance concerning the amendment of ordinances on sanctions in relation to proliferation and terrorist financing, published on 25 settembre 2026. This is the reference to use to compare the announced wording with the applicable provisions.

The press release does not indicate an online procedure, a recipient authority, a form or an operational deadline. It is therefore not possible to derive a more detailed administrative process from this text without adding information extraneous to the source. The concrete verification must stop at the criteria explicitly described: ordinance, type of transaction, nature of the organization and obligation concerned.

For personal tax matters, separate from sanctions, you can use calcolatore stipendio/imposte.

Source: admin.ch