In reverse order, Switzerland is not covered by the EU's passage of a FATF SR VII law, and it has not passed one of its own. So, it's anyone's guess why a Swiss bank would make reference to the standard.
Also, if the wire transfer used tag 50F for the originator information (instead of 50K), and if they truly did supply a national identity number, then you can tell the country of the originating party. Certain sub-tags within 50F require the presence of the 2-letter country ISO code to be present. And, the national ID number itself usually contains a country ISO code. For example, a Swiss national identity number starts with "756" which is the 3-digit ISO code for Switzerland.
If the wire troubles you, I would ask Merrill Lynch to supply the originating party information.