IRELAND: Beneficial Ownership of Certain Financial Vehicles Regulations 2020

Friday July 10 2020

The Irish government has introduced legislation which designates the Central Bank of Ireland as the registrar of beneficial ownership for certain collective investment funds.

Beneficial Owner Definition

A ‘beneficial owner’ is a person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity, either through direct or indirect ownership of at least 25% of the voting rights or shares or ownership interest in the entity. New regulations that came into force on 22 June now require beneficial ownership information to be disclosed for inclusion on Ireland’s new Central Register of Beneficial Ownership (CRBO).

 Central Bank’s role in this Central Register

The Regulations specify that the Central Bank will be responsible for establishing a Central Register in respect of:

• Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicles
• Unit Trust Schemes where Unit Trust means – (a) a Unit Trust scheme with the meaning of the Unit Trusts Act 1990 (No. 37 of 1990); or (b) an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities (within the meaning of the UCITS Regulations), that is constituted of a unit trust (within the meaning of the UCITS Regulations) and authorised under those Regulations
• Credit Unions

Portal

The Central Bank will shortly have a Portal available on its website allowing for submission of the required information. A notification of when the required information can be submitted to the Portal will be published on the Central Bank website.

Effective Date

Existing ICAVs and unit trusts will be required to report beneficial ownership information to the Central Bank by 25 December 2020 (i.e. within six months of 25 June 2020, being the effective date of the Financial Vehicles Regulations). New ICAVs and unit trusts will be required to report beneficial ownership information to the Central Bank within six months of establishment.

Click on the link for further information.