Swiss wealth managers urge delay to ownership register after hack

Switzerland’s Transparency Register is supposed to go live on October 1, 2026, cataloging the beneficial owners behind roughly 600,000 legal entities. But a cyberattack on neighboring Liechtenstein’s nearly identical system has Swiss wealth managers asking a reasonable question: maybe let’s not rush this. Hackers breached Liechtenstein’s Register of Beneficial Owners, known as the VwbP, during the night of July 29-30, extracting personal data tied to approximately 31,000 legal entities. The compromised information included names, birth dates, nationalities, and countries of residence of the people behind companies, foundations, and trusts. No financial data was accessed. What happened in Liechtenstein Liechtenstein launched its VwbP in 2021 to comply with EU anti-money laundering directives. That streak ended on July 30 when authorities detected irregularities in the register. The Liechtenstein government moved quickly, taking the database offline and standing up a crisis unit led by Prime Minister Brigitte Haas and Justice Minister Emanuel Schädler. By July 31 or August 1, officials had been formally notified. Public statements confirming the scope of the breach followed between A...