The Risk & Compliance Outsourced Expert
BERCLAZ & PARTNERS
Risk & Compliance Outsourcing Firm
Risk & Compliance Outsourcing Function
We provide financial institutions with an independent 2nd-level Compliance & Risk function. Our pro-active experts maintain the Compliance & Risk program developed in-house for Portfolio Managers and Trustees which complies to the legal and regulatory standards in accordance with the expectations of our Swiss regulatory body, FINMA.
Swiss LEGAL
We provide legal advice in Swiss banking and financial sectors, in particular, all necessary procedures related to the establishment of financial companies in Switzerland.
Enforcement FINMA and Complex files
Our core business is to take care of complex cases & restore legal order. We successfully support financial intermediaries with Higher Risk clientele, under FINMA enforcement or special investigation from a self regulatory body.
FINMA Authorisation
We assist asset managers and trustees in the efficient implementation of the new legislations FinIA/ FinSA from scratch until the FINMA authorisation. The project is carried out according to a roadmap drawn up by our experts which is rolled out in Steps:
- Diagnostic & Strategy ;
- Business plan & Financial aspects ;
- FINMA authorisation forms ;
- Tailormade FINIA documentation ;
- EHP filing & Support.
- FINMA autorisations obtained by 24.07.2024: 36
- Current GFE / trustee files under FINMA review : 12
- Current GFE / trustee files under OS review : 0
FATCA and CRS Reporting
Benefiting from great knowledge and several years of hands-on experience in FATCA, US regulations and CRS requirements, our experts take care of the documentation, registration, disclosure and reporting obligations of corporate trustees and other financial institutions.
Berclaz & Partners is a company specializing in the outsourcing of Compliance & Risk Management. Our main clients are Asset Managers, Company & Trust service providers, Family offices and Virtual service related companies. Numerous references are available on request.
Integrity, Discretion, Pragmatism, Confidentiality & Excellence are the core values that guide us in our daily work.
News
Portfolio Managers/ Trustees – FinIA Application Updated feedback on experiences
After 2 years of Covid, 2 months of peace, our minds cannot be elsewhere than focused on the War in which Ukrainians are fiercely combatting for the restoration of peace in their Country but also its maintenance for our whole Continent. “Would it not be a great...
FinIA / FinSA application First personal feedback on experiences
I would like to share a few words on our first experiences on the FinIA application. We submitted a few cases early Summer 2021. What comes first to mind are two grand-father proverbs: “Accept what you can’t change”. Very few asset managers and trustees requested for...
JERSEY OFFSHORE LEAK
In the fall of 2020, a television programme was made on a journalistic investigation called “Jersey Offshore leak”. In short 350’000 confidential documents leaked from the archives of a Jersey trust company called “La Hougue Financial Management Services Ltd”. Amongst...
Our Areas of expertise
AML Know How & Directives
International Sanctions & Embargoes
KYC & Transaction reviews
Tax Compliance FATCA / CRS
Swiss LEGAL
Crypto currency & Blockchain
FinIA & FinSA
IT & Digitalisation
Our services
We assist asset managers and trustees in the efficient implementation of the new legislations FinIA/ FinSA
The project is carried out according to a roadmap drawn up by our experts which takes place in four phases:
- Compliance Diagnostic & advisory support;
- Documentary kits & Repapering milesotones;
- Establishment of the internal control system;
- Preparation and submission of the financial intermediary’s file.
- Compliance Diagnostic & Advisory support
The purpose of the diagnosis is to determine the risk propensity of the financial intermediary and review its internal organisation in order to detect breaches of applicable legal, regulatory and statutory requirements. It also draws up the regulatory inventory. The diagnosis also makes it possible to define the best Compliance strategy to adopt within a set budget, according to current or future objectives and challenges, in particular in terms of FinIA, FinSA, Compliance and IT. Unlike an LBA revision or an audit, we have a preventive role. We are specifically looking for potential malfunctions, optimizations to implement or sensitive cases to solve according to best practices.
- Documentary kits & Repapering milesotones
We review your applicable legal documentation and put in place several kits individually adapted to the daily operations of the financial intermediary according to the up-to-date requirements of LEFIN, LSFIN and Compliance, in particular:
- LEFIN kit: Internal organization regulations, Business continuity, Risk assessment models, Narilo Directive
- LSFIN kit: Management mandate, Advisory mandate, Execution only mandate, General conditions, Questionnaire Client risk profile and client classification, Request to be treated as a professional client (opting-out), “LSFIN” Directive Best execution / Rule market conduct / conflict of interest management, basic newsletter to clients)
- AML kit: Ethics, Compliance & AML directives and appendices
We then assist in the repapering exercise and the training of internal teams on the new measures to be adopted.
- Establishment of the internal control system
We develop and implement recurring and / or general controls
- Preparation and submission of the financial intermediary’s file
We prepare jointly with the financial intermediary its accreditation file, file it in the EHP system and monitor its progress both with the Supervisory Body and with FINMA
We provide financial institutions with an independent 2nd-level Compliance function
Our pro-active experts maintain the Compliance program developed in-house which complies to the legal and regulatory requirements of both the Swiss regulatory body FINMA and the Self-Regulatory organisations.
The scope of the role as well as the frequency of intervention vary according to the needs of the financial intermediary, the organisational strategy in place, the customer risk-rating and the development stage.
The scope of our expertise:
- Establishment of the Compliance & Risk Management framework;
- Compliance & Risk Directives;
- AML Due diligence duties;
- KYC, KYT, KYB, KYP
- Banking documentation;
- Regulatory watch;
- Tax Compliance;
- International Sanctions and Embargoes;
- Cross-border;
- Performance and Risk management;
- Consolidated supervision;
- Healthchecks;
- Periodic reportings.
Note: We also offer powerful IT software for information automation and continuous data monitoring.
Our core business is to take care of complex cases & restore legal order.
We successfully support financial intermediaries with Higher Risk clientele, under FINMA enforcement or special investigation from a self regulatory organisation.
In the event of a FINMA enforcement procedure or a recurrence of audit points that do not seem to solve, we support the financial intermediary in re-establishing an adequate organisation and in guaranteeing its flawless AML activity, particularly in the elimination of the shortcomings observed.
We support foreign financial companies aiming to settle offices in Switzerland
We provide legal advice in Swiss banking and financial sectors*. We carry out all in particular all necessary legal procedures related to the establishment of financial companies in Switzerland, such as working permits, obtaining the authorisation to exercise a financial activity in Switzerland, account opening support with the correct fit banking partner & the best selection of commercial premises.
*Except any tax related request. We do not provide any tax advice nor private banking services.
We assist the Private Banking customers with the banking documentation & Compliance related requests of the bank
provided introduction by a Swiss regulated Financial Intermediary, notary or lawyer.
Meet the Founder

Michael Berclaz
Founding Partner / CEO / Senior Compliance & Risk officer
Responsible to Finma for authorised entities
Sectors: Banking, Wealth management, Portfolio Management, Trustees & Crypto
Michael, Swiss resident, father of 2, holder of a Master in Swiss Law (MLaws), a diploma is Risk Management & the CAS in Compliance Management, he holds both UK & Swiss citizenship (born 1978). He has more than 20 years experience in the Compliance industry.
Prior to setting up the company, he held Project Management & Senior Compliance functions to Major Bank Institutions in Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, Portugal and France (Paris) such as Lloyds TSB, ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Société Générale & EFG Bank. Aged 32 y.o., he successfully held the challenging position of Group Chief Compliance Officer of a Swiss Private bank with international branches for several years. He then focused on managing Compliance & Risk projects he is passionate about: Organisation, Audit Remediation, Sanctions, AML & Tax.
He has an excellent reputation in the market; speaks fluently English, French and German. Referrals available on request as well as some on LinkedIn.
“As entrepreneurs, we use Compliance as part of the business growth strategy bringing a competitive advantage on the acquisition of new opportunities”.
Let’s schedule a phone call or video conference : Here
The Team

Volha Sakalova
Director / COO / Partner
Volha is a university graduate translator in RU / FR obtained with the Linguistic University of Minsk and is a certified business administration employee. She enjoys a solid professional experience in Accounting, Management, Regulatory Compliance, Legal affairs and Front-office acquired within various financial intermediaries in Switzerland, in particular within a Company & Service provider, a Multi-family office and as compliance officer within a major wealth management company. She now manages the company in its commercial development, structuring and in the optimisation of the work of consultants as well as in its accounting aspects.
Volha is fluent in English, French and Russian.

Ranjan Bhalla
Mandate Responsible to FINMA / Senior Risk Manager
Sectors: Portfolio Management, Global commodity traders & Asset Management (CISA)
Ranjan is a Swiss resident and holds both Swiss & Canadian citizenship. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Brown University in the United States, he returned to Switzerland where he joined the commodities trading industry as a market risk analyst. He has 17 years of risk management experience acquired at leading global commodity trading companies based in Switzerland (Cargill, Koch and Bunge) where he held senior risk positions. He also dealt with compliance and regulatory issues and led a project to assess the impact of new EU & Swiss financial regulations, helping to raise awareness of the new rules within the company and update processes to ensure proper compliance.
Ranjan is fluent in English and French and learning Spanish.

Anne Pouit
Mandate Responsible to FINMA / Senior Compliance Officer
Sectors: Banking, Wealth management, Trustees & Crypto
Anne, Swiss-French national, is responsible, for 20 years, for guaranteeing compliance with laws, regulations, jurisprudence and ethics rules within financial entities, mainly in Switzerland and Luxembourg, also in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and in Uruguay.
She is an expert in assessing the risks when client onboarding or client profiles reviewing.
She is knowledgable in Swiss laws and regulations applying to Finance in Switzerland and had the opportunity to learn and/or apply AML approaches in Anglo-Saxon and EMEA jurisdictions.
With her legal background, she obtained a CAS Compliance Management Certificate from UNIGE and a Compliance diploma from the International Compliance Association (ICA).
She is now working on more specific trainings relating to international Sanctions and Cryptocurrencies.
She is an active member of the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialist and of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (ACAMS).
Following a 5 years experience in the field of collective investment funds wirth DEXIA-BIL in Luxembourg, she then worked within Compliance department of renowned private Banks in Swizerland: BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, EFG Bank SA… She joints Berclaz & Associés as Senior Compliance officer with the key position as Deputy to the Head of Compliance.
She speaks fluently French and English

Jean Desquaires
Junior Risk Officer
Sectors: Risk management, operational governance
Jean, a French national, father of 3, is a wealth management professional. With a solid experience built within the independent wealth management sector in Geneva, he has developed a deep expertise in front and back-office operations of those entities.
Trained in-house, he supplied a position as operations and AML Responsible officer. In this key role, Jean played a key part in managing the daily operations whilst actively contributing in obtaining the “collective asset management” license from FINMA.
He joins the Berclaz & Associés team as a Junior Risk Officer to provide support in the Risk management tasks as well as assist the customers on the operational governance topics.
He is fluent in both English and French.

Silvana Antonietti Ruedin
Mandate Responsible to FINMA / Senior Risk Officer
Silvana, a Swiss citizen born in Argentina, has extensive experience in the banking field with large foreign banks based in Switzerland (Banque du Gothard and BNP Paribas).
After 10 years of experience in internal audit & inspection at the headquarters of two banks (Lugano and Geneva) as well as in branches and representative offices (Lugano, Geneva, Lausanne, Luxembourg, Monaco, Bahamas, Guernsey, Saô Paulo and Buenos Aires), she continued her career in risk management.
First of all, in credit risk management (2 years in the Corporate and Investment Banking sector and 5 years in International Private Banking). Then, in accounting, financial and operational risk management for 18 years. In this last position, she contributed, as Manager, to the implementation of the internal control system and the permanent control system (operational and accounting risk) for the subsidiary BNP Paribas Switzerland and BNP Paribas Wealth Management Monaco.
She joins Berclaz et Associés as Senior Risk Officer to support clients in the implementation and evolution of their risk management process.
She is trilingual, Spanish, Italian and French and has good knowledge of English.

Sophia KOROVINE
Junior Compliance Officer
Of Swiss and Russian origin, Sophia is a finance specialist who has distinguished herself in the field of precious metals trading and investment strategies. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a specialization in Law from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, as well as a Master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of Geneva. Combining academic expertise with hands-on experience in client relationship management and file preparation, Sophia is deeply passionate about regulatory monitoring and is currently pursuing additional training with Vision Compliance.
Specializing in compliance management, Sophia has advanced expertise in the application of international regulations, including AML laws and frameworks governing economic sanctions. Through in-house training, she has honed her skills in the preparation, monitoring, and analysis of KYC/KYT files, along with the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing policies.
She has joined the team at Berclaz & Associés as a Junior Compliance Officer to support the Compliance Department’s operations.
Sophia is fluent in French, English, Russian, and Chinese.
Contact
Contact us to discuss about adequate solutions for your needs.
We communicate in french, english, german, italian and russian.
Berclaz & Associés SARL
Rue du Vieux-Collège 8, 6th floor
CH – 1204 Geneva
+41 22 312 10 11
+41 78 710 32 01
OUR CORPORATE SOCIAL rESPONSIBILITY
Our Journey led us to discover in 2018 the Shere Khan’s Youth Protection NGO founded by Noëlle Alice Demole. This Swiss non-profit organization addresses an unmet need: the funding of education for Indian homeless children, teenagers and young adults. The NGO helps these individuals achieve financial independence by getting an academic degree or a professional training program. With the help of their local partnership, SUEB Group, the association is mainly focusing on the prevention of the young Indian generation from the dangers of a senseless life in the streets where the vulnerability to human trafficking and other criminal activities exists.
Currently, Shere Khan’s Youth Protection and its team of 6 are helping a total of 68 students that are able to go to universities in Tamil Nadu pursuing many different programs. Their long-term goal is to be able to help a total of 1’000 individuals if they are able to raise enough funds in the upcoming years.
Each new hour package signed (as well as each renewal) by our clients enables us to donate a percentage of our income to assist this NGO in it’s long terme goals. We thank you for that.
To visit their website go to https://www.sherekhansyouthprotection.com
Follow them on Instagram @sherekhansyouthprotection