Ultimate beneficial owners disclosure underway

Ukrainian companies get on with disclosing their beneficial owners.

To recap, Order of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine No. 163 “On approval of the Regulation on the Ownership Structure Form and Substance” dated 19 March 2021 (the “Order”) entered into force on 11 July 2021.

In this context, all Ukrainian companies must disclose information about their ultimate beneficial owners (“UBOs”) in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations (the “Register”) and submit the information on the company’s ownership structure in free form by 11 October 2021.

UBO disclosure should be made within the given timeframe, as failure to timely submit or non-submission of such information to the state registrar will result in a fine of up to UAH 51,000 being imposed on the head of the legal entity or a person authorized to act on behalf of such legal entity or executive body. In addition it should be noted that according to the requirements of the new AML legislation, primary financial monitoring entities must notify the State Financial Monitoring Service of any discrepancies between the client's UBO information available in the Register and the UBO information obtained in the process of such client's due diligence.

Accordingly, apart from the aforementioned penalties, failure to comply with the disclosure requirements may affect the companies' interaction with primary financial monitoring entities.

As practice shows, companies should allow for some time for them to prepare packages of documents to be filed with the state registrar, specifically, notarized apostilled and translated into Ukrainian extracts from commercial / bank / court registers confirming the registration of non-resident companies being part of ownership structure in their host country, and copies of passports of non-resident UBOs.

How can Deloitte experts help?

Our team offers the following services:

1. Analysis of the current status of UBO disclosure in the Register and other sources, with an emphasis on potential difficulties to be taken into consideration when disclosing beneficiaries.
2. Preparation for the UBO disclosure, in particular, analysis of the company's structure, its presentation in accordance with the requirements of the Order.
3. Support during the UBO information disclosure in the Register.
4. Consultations regarding the UBO disclosure and submission of the ownership structure.

If you have any questions or need any advice, please contact our team of experts who will be happy to answer all your questions.