Swiss banks must take greater care to prevent money laundering and corruption when dealing with top international sports officials, under an amendment that passed parliament on Friday.
The scope of the 1997 money laundering law was expanded to include scrutiny of financial transactions with leading officials of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international sports associations, such as the football governing body FIFA.
Banks must determine the background and reasons for transactions with such officials, which "in any case constitute business relations of an elevated risk level," the new law says.
FIFA is embroiled in corruption allegations in connection with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
The Swiss General Prosecutor is currently mulling a criminal complaint filed by FIFA over the possible misconduct of individual persons involved in the host country selection process.
"The IOC fully supports and welcomes this important move by Swiss lawmakers - it is in line with what the IOC already does," the organisation's president Thomas Bach said.
Roland Buechel, a Swiss People's Party member of parliament, told public news portal swissinfo.ch "It's not perfect, but it's law.
"It's not only (Blatter), his secretary and directors who are affected - it's families and people close to them as well," he said, adding the law would make it "difficult for all these people just to have a normal bank account."
Around 65 international sports federations are based in Switzerland.
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