Country-specific guidance Current

Cross-checking beneficial ownership claims against a member state's register

Verification means checking the register, not just accepting what the client tells you.

A client's own statement about who owns or controls the business is a starting point, not the verification itself. This guide sets out how to cross-check that statement against the register that actually holds it. It is general information, not legal or compliance advice.

Action plan

1 Know that verification includes consulting the central register The EU standard doesn't stop at the client's own documents.

The EU's Anti-Money Laundering Regulation requires obliged entities to verify the identity of the beneficial owner by taking reasonable measures to obtain information from the customer or other reliable sources, including public registers, and separately requires obliged entities to verify the information on beneficial owners by consulting the central registers. A client's own declaration, without any register cross-check, does not complete this step.

  • Take reasonable measures to obtain beneficial ownership information from reliable sources beyond the client
  • Separately consult the relevant central register to verify that information
  • Don't treat the client's own declaration alone as complete verification

Done when: Declared beneficial ownership was cross-checked against the relevant central register, not accepted on its own

EUR-Lex: EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, Article 22(7)
2 Find the right register: each member state runs its own There isn't one EU beneficial ownership register; there are 27 national ones.

The EU's anti-money laundering directive requires each member state to ensure beneficial ownership information is held in a central register located outside the legal entity itself, using a central database, the business register, or another central register that member state has chosen, with information accessible in a readily usable, machine-readable format. Confirm which member state's register actually holds the entry for the entity you're checking.

  • Confirm which member state's central register holds the entity's beneficial ownership entry
  • Don't assume the format or access process is the same in every member state
  • Keep a record of which specific register was consulted, and when

Done when: The specific member-state register consulted for the beneficial ownership cross-check is identified and recorded

3 Use the EU's register interconnection tool where it genuinely applies This links you to the right national register; it isn't a single EU-wide beneficial ownership database itself.

The Beneficial Ownership Registers Interconnection System, known as BORIS, is a tool for linking national central registers containing beneficial ownership information for companies and other legal entities, trusts, and other legal arrangements, hosted on the European e-Justice Portal. Use it to find the right national register and access route, and confirm what that specific member state's register actually shows rather than assuming every member state's data is equally accessible through it.

  • Use BORIS on the European e-Justice Portal to locate the right national register
  • Confirm what that specific member state's register makes available before relying on it
  • Don't assume BORIS itself is a single, uniformly accessible EU-wide database

Done when: The correct national register was located, and its own access and content limits were confirmed before relying on it

European e-Justice Portal: Beneficial ownership registers interconnection system (BORIS)