We welcome the support, voiced in the Nigeria-US sponsored resolution on "Facilitating international cooperation in asset recovery" adopted at the Conference of State Parties to the UNCAC in Panama on 29 November 2013, for the Lausanne process and the related initiative to develop practical guidelines for efficient asset recovery.

This project has been initiated by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the International Centre for Asset Recovery and with the support from the StAR Initiative.

On 24-25 October 2013, in coordination with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the International Centre for Asset Recovery organised and hosted a two-day workshop on the topic of "Returning Stolen Assets." The workshop took place in Küsnacht (Zürich), Switzerland.

After two years as the external supporting and supervisory body of FIFA’s governance reform, the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) chaired by Prof. Mark Pieth will step down from its position by the end of 2013. The IGC was set up as a temporary body with the goal of overseeing the creation of a framework of good governance and controls for FIFA.

The B20 Task Force on Anti-Corruption and Transparency has awarded the establishment of the B20 Collective Action Hub to the Basel Institute on Governance, which will work on this in close partnership with the UN Global Compact. This comes at the same time as leading global companies from the energy and transport sector have agreed to establish a Working Group on Integrity to collaborate with the Basel Institute on anti-corruption Collective Action initiatives in those sectors.

The 2013 edition is the second release of the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index. First published in April 2012, it continues to be the only rating of country money laundering/terrorist financing risk by an independent non-profit institution. A Public Edition of the AML Index is available online free of charge. An Expert Edition facilitates more sophisticated independent risk assessments for financial institutions, which have to comply with AML, counter-terrorism financing (CTF), sanctions, and anti-bribery rules.

A high-level conference in Bogota, Colombia, on 2 April saw the launch by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, of the world's first 'High Level Reporting Mechanism' (HLRM).

Professor Mark Pieth, Chairman of the Independent Governance Committee of FIFA, gave this address at the 62nd FIFA Congress 2012. 

Download the presentation (PDF).

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

On behalf of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) and its members I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present our findings. Allow me first, though, to congratulate you to the decision to engage in this major reform process.

The Chairman of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) welcomes the Recommendations by the European Parliamentary Assembly on the reform of Sports Governing Bodies. The IGC considers the Recommendations a helpful support of the ongoing governance reform of FIFA.

The Bank Council of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) approved new regulations on private financial investments and financial transactions by members of SNB management, which will come into effect on 1 May 2012. The draft regulations were drawn up by a working group headed by a Zurich commercial lawyer, Professor Peter Forstmoser.

The working group based its work mainly on a comparative law report by the Basel Institute on Governance. The report assesses the regulations for bank transactions by the Governing Board and compared it with other major central banks.