Dutch trustees required to register as UBOs
All trustees of Dutch pension funds must register as "ultimate beneficial owners" (UBOs) as part of the European Union's policy against money laundering, the Dutch finance minister has said.
If an UBO at a pension fund cannot be clearly identified, the scheme's entire board must be registered as a "pseudo UBO", Hoekstra added, IPE first reported.
Under new European Union anti-money laundering rules, all EU states are supposed to implement public registers, open to those with a legitimate interest, of all companies incorporated in their territories.
These registers are supposed to show who ultimately controls every company incorporated across most of Europe, with registers made accessible to tax inspectors and law enforcement.
In late December the Upper House of the Dutch Parliament announced that it had voted to delay the implementation of the legislation which would have brought the UBO register into force on January 10th 2020. It is now expected that the UBO rules will enter into effect later in the spring - most probably late April
"Despite the delay, the topic of the UBO register in the Netherlands is nothing new, and we've been liaising with our clients on this for some time already. When the legislation is implemented, our clients know what to expect and how we can support them in the process of staying compliant with the new regulations," Tako van Ginkel, managing director ZEDRA Netherlands, said.
"When it comes to registering their details later this year, we will be supporting clients on a case by case basis, acting as a trusted partner in the Netherlands to facilitate the necessary registration, when the legislation enters into force," he added.
In Luxembourg, the UBO register is now live in Luxembourg, which has shed a light on how the authorities are tackling requests for UBO's who wanted to keep their details off the public register.
Around 1,600 requests for a UBO's details to remain anonymous in the public register have been submitted to the Luxembourg authorities. Of these, some 450 have been ruled on so far.
‘So far, the authorities have approved requests for anonymity where the UBO is either a minor or can evidence that there are material risks to his / her personal safety," Frank Walenta, commercial director, ZEDRA Luxembourg said.
"We expect this to continue but at the same time, we are seeing a definitive trend towards authorities not accepting requests for public UBO anonymity based on most other factors," he added.
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