Definition of beneficial owner – According to anti-money laundering legislation, beneficial owners mean the natural persons who, ultimately, own or control a legal entity or are its beneficiaries. The entities required to identify and communicate the beneficial owner to the Company Register are:
- companies with legal personality. The main subjects involved in data communication are: limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, limited partnerships and cooperative companies;
- private legal entities. The subjects involved in the communication of data are associations, foundations and other private institutions;
- trusts and legal institutions similar to trusts. The institutions involved in the communication of data are: trusts in possession of a tax code, resident in Italy or non-resident, but with income produced in Italy, or entities which, due to their structure and functions, determine legal effects equivalent to those of trusts.
Type of subjects who can access the register of beneficial owners –At present, therefore, the subjects who can access the data of the beneficial owners are:
- authorities (article 5 Ministerial Decree 55/2022);
- obliged subjects (article 6 Ministerial Decree 55/2022);
- subjects legitimized by a relevant and differentiated legal interest to take care of or defend an interest corresponding to a legally protected situation (article 21, 4 paragraph, letter d-bis Legislative Decree 231/2007, article 7, 2 paragraph, Ministerial Decree 55/2022, Ministerial Decree 16/03/2023 and Ministerial Decree 20/04/2023).
While accessing by:
- of the authorities takes place following the stipulation of a specific agreement with Unioncamere;
- of legitimated subjects occurs following the submission of a specific reasoned request
- a specific preliminary accreditation procedure is envisaged for the obliged entities.
The procedure for accreditation of obliged entities – The obliged entities required to adequately verify their customers are a very large and varied category (article 3 of Legislative Decree 231/2007). The following fall into the category of banking and financial intermediaries:
- the banks;
- Italian post;
- electronic money institutions;
- payment institutions;
- securities brokerage companies;
- asset management companies;
- fixed capital, securities and real estate investment companies;
- stockbrokers;
- the intermediaries registered in the register provided for by article 106 TUB;
- Cassa Depositi e Prestiti;
- insurance companies;
- insurance intermediaries;
- micro-credit providers;
- the trusts and other subjects referred to in article 112 TUB;
- the trust companies registered in the register pursuant to article 106 TUB;
- financial advisors.
Application for accreditation with dedicated portal by the subject obliged to carry out adequate verification – The consultation request consists of an accreditation request to be submitted online to the territorially competent Chamber of Commerce. It is also possible to delegate the consultation of the beneficial owner’s data to your collaborators. The accreditation is valid for 2 years and can be renewed upon expiry.
Access to the data as another subject –The consultation request consists of a request for access to data which must be justified in relation to each legal entity, to be submitted online to the territorially competent Chamber of Commerce.
Steps to submit applications for accreditation (obligated entity or other entity) – Accreditation requests are presented by obliged and non-obliged parties via the dedicated website https://titolareEFFtivo.registroimprese.it.
To submit the accreditation request, the obliged entity must complete the following steps:
- access to the dedicated portal via Spid (digital identity), Cns (national services card), digital identity card (Cie);
- filling out the online form with the information necessary for accreditation;
- right to indicate delegates to access and consult the database of beneficial owners and to indicate an operational contact person who – in addition to being a delegate in all respects – is also authorized to manage the other delegates (appointment/removal);
- verify the correctness of the self-declaration document generated by the system and sent to your certified email address so that the obliged party, before sending the accreditation request, has full awareness of what he is about to declare under his own personal responsibility;
- sending of the signed request via authenticated session.
For obligated legal persons, the figure of the “person responsible for completing the request” (e.g. their trusted advisor) is also envisaged: in this case the self-declaration generated by the system must be digitally signed by the legal representative of the obligated legal person and forwarded through the functions made available by the portal.
The request for accreditation as an application addressed to the Public Administration is subject to stamp duty of 16 euros to be paid using the methods that are illustrated directly in the dedicated portal, methods that will be subject to further implementation in the phases following the start of the service .
