On September 19, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Resolution #1011 "On Approval of Methodology for Determining the Ultimate Beneficial Owner by a Legal Entity (Methodology)", following which, a unified approach to determining the real owners of companies will be established at the state level.
Experts of the AmCham member companies discussed the draft of this Methodology within the framework of the working group under the Ministry of Finance and provided their contribution during the drafting process.
The new Methodology took into account the following proposals of AmCham member companies' experts:
- To add information about the legal entity-founders of companies contained in the registers of foreign countries to the list of sources of information on the basis of which the identification of the ultimate beneficial owner and signs of direct decisive influence on the activities of the legal entity through the direct ownership by an individual of a key share of the authorized (composed) capital or voting rights of the legal entity can be conducted.
- To add analysis and documentation (formalization) of information as one of the stages of determining the final beneficial owner by a legal entity or establishing the fact of its absence.
The need to develop the Methodology arose due to the requirements of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, as well as the implementation of international financial monitoring standards from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering into Ukrainian legislation.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine welcomes the approval of the new Methodology and thanks the AmCham member companies’ experts for their professional support.
Also, the business community is grateful to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and National Bank of Ukraine for their efforts to ensure the availability of adequate, accurate, and up-to-date information on the beneficial ownership of legal entities.
