Bill amending access to UBO registers to the House of Representatives

On July 1, the caretaker government submitted the bill to the House of Representatives amending the Act Restricting Access to UBO Registers. This bill will restore access to UBO registers for notaries, among others.

The bill follows a ruling by the European Court of Justice on November 22, 2022, in which the court declared the disclosure of UBO information invalid. A legislative amendment will restrict access to UBO registers. Only certain parties, including institutions referred to in the Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft), will be permitted to consult UBO registers again.

Facts
Civil-law notaries and other Wwft institutions will then again have access to the previously public UBO data for their client due diligence. This includes the name, month and year of birth, country of residence and nationality of the UBO, and the nature and extent of the economic interest held by the UBO.

Legitimate interest
Even when civil-law notaries provide services that fall under the Wwft's exemption from litigation or that do not, there may be a legitimate interest in accessing or providing data from the UBO registers. Civil-law notaries must know who their clients are, even outside of the Wwft, and must prevent their services and any associated transactions from being misused for illegal activities, such as fraud or money laundering. The bill therefore provides a basis for granting civil-law notaries access to the UBO registers in these cases as well. This will be further elaborated in a general administrative order .

Method of access
A general administrative order will establish further rules regarding how Wwft institutions can access UBO registers. Further elaboration on how this group can access UBO information is important, partly because these institutions request and receive UBO information in various ways. This includes requests via the Chamber of Commerce portal, through a data link with the UBO registers, and via the services of facilitating parties to which the Chamber of Commerce provides UBO data.