Comparative note on anonymity, cost and speed
Founders from civil-law jurisdictions sometimes expect Singapore to offer the opacity of older offshore centres. It does not. The directors and shareholders of every Singapore company are on the public register, the beneficial owners are on a central register accessible to agencies, and nominee relationships must be disclosed. Switzerland publishes the members of a GmbH but keeps the shareholders of an AG off the public record. Its federal transparency register of beneficial owners, adopted as part of the 2024 to 2026 AML reform, was not yet operational on 30 June 2026.1 Both hubs give law enforcement and tax authorities full access. Both exchange the information under CRS and, from 2026 and 2027 respectively, under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework discussed in Chapter VII.
On cost and speed, Singapore wins the first year and Switzerland the fifth. A Pte. Ltd. costs under S$ 5,000 to form and S$ 5,000 to S$ 15,000 a year to maintain with a nominee director and secretary. A Swiss GmbH costs CHF 5,000 to CHF 10,000 to form and a similar annual amount for accounting, audit waiver and a resident director. The Swiss foundation is the expensive outlier, at CHF 15,000 to CHF 40,000 to establish and CHF 20,000 to CHF 60,000 a year to run with audited accounts and supervisory fees. Those figures buy a vehicle that the market and the regulators treat as independent, which is what a treasury vehicle exists to be.
Notes
- Federal Act on the Transparency of Legal Entities and the Identification of Beneficial Owners (TJPG), adopted by Parliament in 2025; entry into force and the start of the register's operation to be fixed by the Federal Council. Part F, Chapter VI, sets out the state of the reform. ↩
For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.