UBO registers in the EU and the case of a company controlled by a trust

UBO registers of companies and trusts are being introduced all over the EU under the 4th and the 5th AML Directive. Very few EU Member States have expressly dealt with the case of an EU company controlled by a trust. The UBO registers of companies are fully open to the public while those of trusts are accessible only to people demonstrating a legitimate interest. This is consistent with the respect of privacy that goes back to the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen’ of 1789. Some countries such as Belgium and Cyprus have issued regulations requesting that only the trust be mentioned in the UBO register of the underlying company while the details of the UBOs of that trust are filed in the corresponding, non-public register.