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Portugal: The legislation on the Legal Regime governing the Central Registry of Effective Beneficiaries has been published
Ordinance no. 233/2018, which regulates the Legal Regime governing the Central Registry of Effective Beneficiaries (RCBE), has been published. Among other aspects, this ordinance defines the way the form on effective beneficiaries is to be declared and submitted, information is to be provided and authentication procedures are to be used for obligated entities, as well as the respective search criteria and the terms for obtaining information and certificates from the database.
It is also established that the initial declaration of entities subject to the RCBE, which have already been established at the time of this decree coming into force (specifically 1st October 2018) will be done in phases, under the following terms:
- a) the entities subject to the commercial register by 30th April 2019;
- b) the remaining entities subject to the RCBE by 30th June 2019.
The first phase for initial declaration begins on 1st January 2019.
We wish to emphasise that the Legal Regime governing the Central Registry of Effective Beneficiaries (RCBE), approved by Law no. 89/2017 of 21st August, transfers chapter III of Directive (EU) no. 2015/849 relating to the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or financing terrorism into domestic law, under the terms of which the member states are now required to ensure the identification of all individual persons who own or control a corporate body.
The RCBE is made up of a database with sufficient, accurate and up-to-date information on the individual person or people who own or have effective control of entities subject to it, even where this is indirectly or through a third party.
The full text of the ordinance can be read here (in Portuguese).