Following a public consultation (please see our previous newsflash), on 25 May 2022 the long-awaited decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance regarding the establishment and regulation of the beneficial owner (“UBO”) register in Italy was published in the Official Gazette (the “Decree”).
The Decree implements Legislative Decree 231/2007 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing (“AML Law”).
Pursuant to the Decree, Italian based companies having legal personality, private legal persons, trusts and institutions similar to trusts will be required to report information on their UBO to the Companies Register for registration purposes.
The information to be reported must include, among other things, the identification data of the relevant UBO and, in case of companies, the criterion pursuant to which the relevant natural person(s) has/have been identified as UBO(s). Further information is to be reported depending on the nature of the relevant reporting entity.
The information is to be communicated within 60 days from the effective commencement date of the register which will occur upon the issuance of the relevant secondary measures. Companies and private legal persons, which will be incorporated afterwards, will be required to report UBO related information within 30 days from the enrolment in their respective registers. Trusts and institutions similar to trusts instead, will be required to report UBO related information within 30 days from their incorporation. Any amendment to the data reported is to be communicated within 30 days. The reported data must be confirmed on an annual basis by the relevant entity.
Supervisory authorities, obliged entities under the AML Law and, in certain specific cases, other subjects may access to the information contained in the register.
Obliged entities under the AML Law accessing the register for consultation of data and information on the UBO in the context of the customer due diligence will be required to promptly report to the Companies Register any discrepancy between the information on the UBO obtained upon consultation of the register and information obtained in the context of customer due diligence.
Next steps
The UBO Register is yet operational and in the following months the relevant secondary measures will be enacted. The Decree published in the Official Gazette is available here (in Italian only).
Authored by Jeffrey Greenbaum, Elisabetta Zeppieri, and Claudia Colomba.
