Danish Parliament Strengthens Registration Requirements of Ultimate Beneficial Owners

Published 2 May 2019

PrintCategory: Corporate Regulation

On 2 May 2019, the Danish Parliament adopted amendments to the Danish Companies Act, which implements part of the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive concerning the registration of ultimate beneficial owners.

The new rules make it mandatory for capital owners, and others with direct or indirect control, to provide the company with information necessary to identity their ultimate beneficial owners and further makes it mandatory for companies to supply this information to persons and companies which are required to carry out KYC procedures. Insufficient registrations or lack of documentation for the registrations (or lack of registrations) may be grounds for compulsory dissolution of the company. Further, companies are obligated to make a yearly assessment of whether there are any changes of the ultimate beneficial owners, the results of which are to be presented on the meeting where the central management approves of the annual report.

Next Steps: The new rules enter into force on 10 January 2020.

See the adopted act (in Danish) here.

Tags:  Beneficial OwnershipComplianceDanish RegulationDisclosure RequirementsKYC / AML


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