Graydon: Complying with legislation – finding UBO

If a bank receives a new client request, the bank is obliged under the Wwft to test this natural person for compliance. This is easy to arrange, because you contact the applicant directly. But what about a legal entity, or who should you test for compliance if you want to do business with a company? To do this, you must find out the Ultimate Benificial Owner, the UBO, of a company.

The definition of a UBO is laid down in the Wwft Guidelines. We list them here for you:

• A natural person who:
• An interest of 25 percent or more in the capital (of the client);
• can exercise 25 percent or more voting rights in the general meeting
• Can exercise actual control (in a client)
• Beneficiary of 25 percent or more of a client's assets or trust
• A special authority has control over 25 percent or more of a client's assets

If you do business with a general partnership or a sole proprietorship, the UBO can often be found quickly.

However, in the Netherlands we sometimes have complex group structures and the UBO may only become visible after a search of 13 entities.  

Complying with this legislation is a time-consuming matter. Graydon helps companies with advice on their policy and provides insights to easily identify the UBO and then test it for compliance.

For more information about UBO, please visit the website website.