CH / Switzerland / revised 28 Oct 2026
Swiss revFADP: Where Can AI Models Process Swiss Data?
Switzerland does not require Swiss data to stay in Switzerland, but it does require every foreign destination to be on the Federal Council's adequacy list or covered by a recognised safeguard. Unlike the GDPR, sanctions are criminal and target the natural persons responsible, which is why Swiss compliance teams tend to want routing that is provable, not merely contractual.
- Citation
- Federal Act on Data Protection of 25 September 2020 (revFADP, SR 235.1), Articles 16 and 17; Data Protection Ordinance (DPO, SR 235.11), Annex 1
- Regulator
- Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC)
- In force
- 1 September 2023
- Maximum penalty
- Criminal fines of up to CHF 250,000 on the responsible individuals, including for wilful breach of the transfer rules (Article 61)
Article 16: disclosure abroad
Personal data may be disclosed abroad if the Federal Council has determined that the destination state's legislation guarantees an adequate level of protection. The list sits in Annex 1 of the Data Protection Ordinance and includes the EEA states and the United Kingdom, among others. Since 15 September 2024, the United States is listed for companies certified under the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework.
Without a listing, Article 16(2) permits disclosure under appropriate safeguards, including standard data protection clauses approved, issued or recognised by the FDPIC. The FDPIC has recognised the EU SCCs of 2021 for Swiss transfers, provided they are adapted to refer to Swiss law and the FDPIC.
Article 17: exceptions
Article 17 allows disclosure without adequacy or safeguards in limited cases, such as explicit consent, a direct connection with a contract, overriding public interest, or legal claims before a court. Like GDPR Article 49, these do not suit continuous inference traffic.
Sector overlays: banking secrecy and FINMA
For banks, Article 47 of the Banking Act makes disclosure of client-identifying data a criminal offence, so a prompt containing a client name sent to any third party, Swiss or foreign, needs a legal basis or client consent. FINMA Circular 2018/3 on outsourcing allows outsourcing abroad only if the institution, its auditors and FINMA keep access to the data and restructuring or resolution remains possible. FINMA's 2024 guidance on governance and risk management for AI adds expectations on inventory, data quality and explainability.
- 01
Swiss data plane first
Route Swiss tenants to inference capacity operated in Switzerland where available, with EEA endpoints as the next tier because they are on the Annex 1 list. - 02
Client-identifying data never leaves the bank's perimeter
For banking tenants, detect client names, account numbers and IBANs in prompts and pseudonymise them in a vault the bank controls before any third-party model sees the text. - 03
Swiss-adapted SCCs per non-listed importer
Where an importer sits outside the list, the route must reference SCCs adapted for Swiss law and a risk assessment comparable to a GDPR TIA. - 04
Audit and resolution access
FINMA outsourcing rules require that supervisors and auditors can inspect. Per-request receipts and a published Merkle root give them an independent check of where processing happened.
| # | Rule | Legal rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | When X-YTT-Policy is swiss-fadp-compliant, allow destinations on the Annex 1 list and deny all others unless an FDPIC-recognised SCC reference is attached to the route. | Article 16(1) and 16(2) are the only routine bases for continuous disclosure abroad. |
| 02 | Permit US endpoints only for importers certified under the Swiss-US DPF. | The Federal Council's US listing applies to certified companies, not to the United States as a whole. |
| 03 | For tenants flagged as banks, mask client-identifying data before any egress, including to Swiss providers. | Banking Act Article 47 is not a cross-border rule: it applies to any disclosure to a third party. |
| 04 | Fail over from Zurich to Geneva or Lausanne capacity, then to EEA, never to non-listed regions. | Failover is still a disclosure abroad under Article 16 and must follow the same list. |
swiss-fadp-compliant
The rules above, written as Open Policy Agent Rego (v1 syntax). The gateway evaluates the pack in-process in every regional data plane before forwarding a request; YTT Secunet measures median evaluation under 3 ms in production.
Packs are versioned and signed. The version that decided each request is named in the residency receipt, so an auditor can match the decision to this exact text.
How the policy engine workspackage yttsecunet.policies.swiss_fadp_compliant
import rego.v1
listed(country) if data.ch.annex1_countries[country]
listed("US") if input.endpoint.importer.swiss_dpf_status == "active"
has_swiss_scc if input.endpoint.transfer_tool == "scc-2021-914-ch-adapted"
default destination_ok := false
destination_ok if input.endpoint.country == "CH"
destination_ok if listed(input.endpoint.country)
destination_ok if has_swiss_scc
deny contains "destination not on Federal Council list" if not destination_ok
deny contains "client-identifying data must be masked for banks" if {
input.tenant.sector == "bank"
some cls in input.guardrail.detected
cls in {"person_name", "iban", "account_number"}
input.guardrail.mode != "mask"
}Each item is verifiable against configuration, signed receipts or contract records. Tick through it with your DPO.
Does the revFADP require Swiss hosting?
No. It requires adequate protection at the destination. Many Swiss institutions still choose Swiss hosting because banking secrecy, professional secrecy and FINMA outsourcing expectations make foreign processing harder to justify.
Who gets fined?
The revFADP's criminal provisions target natural persons, typically the managers responsible, with fines of up to CHF 250,000. Companies can be fined only in limited cases under Article 64.
Is the EU on the Swiss adequacy list?
Yes. EEA member states are listed in Annex 1 of the Data Protection Ordinance, so routing Swiss data to Frankfurt or Dublin needs no additional safeguard under the revFADP.
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