Ultimate Beneficial Owners Registers in the EU 2022
What changed in the ultimate beneficial owner registers (shortly known as UBO registers) in the EU in 2022? In accordance with the 4th and 5th AML Directive they should exist in each country and be publicly available. Have all countries complied with the regulation?
UBO registers in the European Union 2022
6 years ago the 4th AML Directive imposed on the EU Member States the obligation to create registers of UBO (ultimate beneficial owners). This applies to all 27 countries that currently belong to the European Union.
One and a half years ago, we wrote that 23 out of 27 countries belonging to the EU met the obligation to create a register of ultimate beneficial owners. Such a requirement was imposed by the 4th AML Directive. Currently, almost all EU countries, 26 to be precise, collect and make available data about UBOs in registers.
Most countries decided to create a separate register of UBO. Some countries, such as Bulgaria and Slovakia, have added data about ultimate beneficial owners in already existing registers of companies as additional data categories that are available along with basic company data.
Here you can check the current state of UBO registers in EU 2022:
In Poland, the register of ultimate beneficial owners, called the Central Ultimate Beneficial Owners Register of Poland (in polish: Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych or CRBR), exists for 3 years and is publicly available to everyone. There is no charge for verifying data of the companies and persons that stand behind them.
Beside Poland, the register of ultimate beneficial owners, the use of which is free of charge and is not limited in any way, have several european countries:
- Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- France
- Luxembourg
- Latvia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
Moreover, Danish and Latvian UBO registers provide data via API, which distinguishes these two registers from the others.
What is worth nothing, in a few registers of ultimate beneficial owners in the EU, despite the fact that they are open to the public, you need to set up an account to get access to the data.
In these countries, the UBO registers are publicly available, but additional fees are charged for the data:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Estonia
- Netherlands
- Ireland
- Romania
- Sweden
To the registers of ultimate beneficial owners of the following countries have access only nationals or citizens of other EU countries:
- Sweden
- Belgium
- Croatia
- Portugal
EU ultimate beneficial owners registers: which countries have still not created a register?
The only country that has not yet established an ultimate beneficial owner register is Italy. However, in the company register, which belongs to Italy, you can often find data on the shareholders of a given company. In theory, Italian companies are required to complete this type of data. Unfortunately, most of them fail to do so. According to the decree in force in Italian law, almost every company (with exceptions) is obliged to provide information about UBOs when they are requested by e.g. another company or authorities when such data does not appear in the companies register. If the company fails to provide such information, it may be fined between 103 and 1,032 EUR. It seems that by this decree the Italian authorities replaced the obligation to establish a beneficial owner register, however, this is not a solution for business.
Open ultimate beneficial owners registers in Europe
The 5th AML Directive imposed an obligation on the European Union to completely open the registers of UBOs. This means that the created registers of ultimate beneficial owners have to be completely public.
Until recently, 13 UBOs registers in the EU were publicly accessible and could be viewed by anyone or only citizens, but weren’t only available to authorities (nor were they private registers). How is the situation today? At the moment, there are 18 ultimate beneficial owners’ registers in the EU, which are not private registers — they are publicly available. The scope of data that are most often presented in them is:
- first name and last name,
- date of birth,
- nationality,
- home country,
- nature of business,
- range of activities.
Beneficiary registers: do they really contain data on UBOs?
According to the 5th AML Directive, the registers of ultimate beneficial owners in the EU must be open to everyone. It is also obligatory to notify UBOs. Entrepreneurs face severe penalties for failing to comply with this obligation. In fact, for example, in Poland, companies do not always report their UBOs, so sometimes citizens and institutions that have to apply AML procedures have access to the registers of UBOs, but they don’t contain the necessary data.
Some registers of ultimate beneficial owners in the EU are only available to authorities or institutions that have to verify beneficiaries under AML procedures (banks and financial institutions). Other countries require the stakeholders to provide information on what the data on the UBOs is needed for or they require the submission of an appropriate form, and the data on the ultimate beneficial owners is sent when the application is approved. Such actions do not comply with the guidelines in the directive.
Quick identification of the polish ultimete beneficial owner
Are you looking for a solution that will allow you to quickly identify the UBO of the company, even when such data is missing in CRBR? Check out the data software house Transparent Data offer. Try the API Ultimate Beneficial Owner and check the possibilities offered by the Data Integrator economic information platform. More details can be found here:
