Update on the Dutch UBO register

This week, the Dutch Minister of Finance published a letter providing an update on the Dutch register on Ultimate Beneficial Owners (the UBO register). The key takeaways are:

Compliance rate
As of March 1, 2024, approximately 80% of the companies and other legal entities have complied with the UBO registration.

Proposed change to the UBO definition (threshold)
Currently, a natural person qualifies as a UBO in case he or she has more than 25% of the ownership or voting rights. It is proposed that this UBO threshold will be lowered to 25% or more, meaning that a natural person with exactly 25% of the ownership or voting rights will also qualify as a UBO. If implemented, a number of companies and legal entities will have to revise their registration in the UBO register.

Accessibility to the UBO register
Currently, it is already possible for a company to access its UBO information via

https://www.kvk.nl/ubo/inzien-gegevens/.

As of June 1, 2024, it will be possible for a company to obtain a certified extract from the UBO register. This extract could be used by the company to evidence its UBO registration to any party/relationship that is obliged to perform KYC due diligence until this party/relationship has reobtained access to the UBO register itself.

It is expected that banks, notaries, and insurance companies will regain access to the UBO register around the summer of this year. After regaining access, they will be obliged (again) to report any incompleteness or incorrectness to the UBO register.

Support
In case you have any questions about the above, please contact our experts at BUREN.