On 15 November 2016,the Department of Finance published the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering:Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations 2016 (the”Regulations”).
The Regulations require companies and otherlegal entities incorporated in Ireland to take all reasonable steps to holdadequate, accurate and current information on their “beneficial owners” on aninternal beneficialownership register as and from 15 November 2016.
What do I need to do?
As the Regulations apply with effect from 15November 2016 and there are no savers or transitional periods, entities inscope must now:
- Establish an internal register of their beneficial owners
- Where the beneficial owners are not known, take “all reasonable steps” to ensure the beneficial ownership information is obtained and entered on the beneficial ownership register
- Where no beneficial owners can be identified, enter the names of the senior managers (including the directors and CEO) of the relevant entity on the beneficial ownership register as the “beneficial owners”.
A beneficial owner is an individual whoultimately owns or controls the relevant entity through direct or indirectownership of a sufficient percentage of the shares or voting rights orownership interest in the relevant entity. A shareholding of 25% plus one shareor an ownership interest of more than 25% will be evidence of ownership orcontrol.
For further information on the Regulationsand their requirements please View our full briefing here.
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