Conditions for access to the Register of Beneficial Owners are changing
As of July 31, 2024, access to information relating to beneficial owners (RBE), hitherto public, is restricted to persons and organizations demonstrating a legitimate interest, in accordance with the November 22, 2022 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Competent authorities and entities subject to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism will retain full access to the information contained in the BMS.
"Since July 31, 2024, Infogreffe and the Conseil national des greffiers des tribunaux de commerce have set up a filtering system allowing only persons with a legitimate interest to consult data on beneficial owners.These persons are as follows:
- competent authorities and regulated professionals, who retain full access to the data pursuant to Article L 561-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code;
- companies, which may continue to access the information of their beneficial owners and, after justifying their legitimate interest, that of the beneficial owners of their potential co-contractors in order to fulfil their compliance and know-your-customer obligations;
- journalists, researchers and civil society players committed to financial transparency, who can access the same database as the one freely accessible before July 31, 2024.
The Infogreffe platform provides a form for processing and responding to requests for access to the register of beneficial owners for each category of person justifying a legitimate interest" (Source: EFL, News, 2024): certificatbe@infogreffe-siege.fr.
Philanthropic organizations must declare their beneficial owners
Law 2024-364 of 22-4-2024 art. 7 : JO 23 text no 1
The DDADUE 4 Act extends the beneficial owner declaration regime to philanthropic organizations.
The DDADUE 4 law, whose provisions came into force on April 24, 2024, now requires associations, foundations, endowment funds and perennial funds to declare information relating to beneficial owners in the registers already dedicated to them, i.e. the national register of associations for the former and the register dedicated to other philanthropic structures, which is currently being developed, for the others (C. mon. fin. art. L 561-46-1 new)". (Source EFL).
