ZAGREB, January 3, 2020 – By the end of 2019, more than 91% of legal entities or 155,000 were registered in the Register of Beneficial Ownership and those who did not register will have to explain why they didn’t, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Friday.
He said that the purpose of the register is to create a database of beneficial ownership, which does not necessarily mean only business entities. Unlike court registers the beneficial ownership register is a lot more detailed and contains associations, foundations and a range of other institutions.
“The end of the year was the deadline to register (…) and more than 91% of entities entered their details, which means more than 155,000 entities,” said Marić.
The deadline set by the EU for corporate and other legal entities to be registered is 10 January 2020 and for trusts and similar legal arrangements by 10 March, said Marić ahead of a cabinet meeting.
According to Marić, the purpose of the register is to further reduce the risk of money laundering or terrorist financing and other forms of tax fraud.
The register will be public and a certain level of information will be accessible to the public while government institutions and law enforcement institutions, particularly those involved in preventing money laundering and terrorism financing will have a complete insight in the register’s details.
“We will determine why some, and there is about 8% of them, have not registered yet,” added Marić.
The Register of Beneficial Ownership was established pursuant to the Prevention of Money Laundering or Terrorist Financing Act. The Registry is controlled by the Financial Agency (Fina) on behalf of the Ministry of Finance Office for Prevention of Money Laundering.
The register was established on 3 June 2019 for legal entities while associations were able to register as of 1 July.
Legal entities and trusts were obliged to enter the details of their beneficial owner in the register by 31 December 2019.
According to legal provisions, beneficial owners are any natural person(s) who is the beneficial owner of the legal entity, controls the entity or controls it in some other way, including a natural person(s) exercising an extremely effective control over the legal entity.
All companies, branch offices of foreign companies, associations, foundations, trusts, institutions of which the Republic of Croatia or the unit of local (regional) government is not the sole founder are obliged to join the register.
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