Regulation of the Legal Framework of the Central Registry of Ultimate Beneficial Owners

The Legal Framework of the RCBE sets, as a measure of combat against money laundering and terrorism financing, the constitution of a data base with precise and actual information on natural persons that hold the property or effective control of the entities subject to the RCBE, even if in an indirectly or through a third person. The regulation of the RCBE Legal Framework was set to be implemented through ministerial order, which is now published.

The ministerial order establishes:

• The form for the declaration on beneficial owners;
• The circumstances which may indicate the quality of beneficial owner, as set on Law n.º 83/2017, of August 18th, which may be taken into account on the fulfillment of the reporting obligation;
• The date in which the information on the Central File of Legal Persons and on the Portuguese Tax Authorities is sent to the RCBE, according to article 22(2)(a)(b) of Law no. 89/2017, of August 21st;
• The public disclosure of information of beneficial owners;
• The authentication procedures of the obliged entities, as well as research criteria;
• The terms of the extraction of information and of the data base certificate;
• The date of the first declaration for the entities already in existent;
• The date and form of communication, by the obliged entities to the respective authorities, of the identification of the entities to which the services referred on article 3(2)(a) of the RCBE Legal Framework are rendered, or with which maintain business relations as referred on article 3(2)(c)(d), for the purpose of articles 22(2)(c) and 22(4) of Law no. 89/2017, of August 21st;
• The date and terms for confirmation and communication through electronic means to the RCBE, by the competent authorities, of the quality of subject entity, as according to article 3(2)(a)(c)(d) of the Legal Framework of the RCBE.

The ministerial order comes into force on 1 October 2018.