Beneficial Ownership Registers (BORs)
Beneficial ownership registers are a central element of the EU anti-money laundering framework. They are designed to increase transparency regarding natural persons who ultimately own or control companies and other legal arrangements. For obliged entities, these registers are a key reference point when identifying and verifying beneficial owners as part of customer due diligence.
Overview of the Beneficial Ownership Registers Table
The table on this page provides a country-by-country overview of official national Beneficial Ownership Registers (BORs) within the European Union and selected European jurisdictions.
For each jurisdiction, the table identifies:
- The competent national beneficial ownership register, and
- The official access point (URL) operated by the responsible authority.
The table serves as a practical compliance reference. It allows obliged entities, auditors, and compliance professionals to directly locate the legally designated register for beneficial ownership information in each country.
National Beneficial Ownership Registers are established under AML legislation, not company law. They typically contain information on:
- Beneficial owners of companies and other legal entities,
- Beneficial owners of trusts and similar legal arrangements,
- The nature and extent of ownership or control.
The table itself does not assess data quality or completeness. Its function is to clearly establish where beneficial ownership information must be sourced from when performing KYC, CDD, enhanced due diligence, or audit procedures.
Beneficial Ownership Registers Interconnection System (BORIS)
Given the cross-border nature of modern business structures, the EU has implemented the Beneficial Ownership Registers Interconnection System (BORIS).
BORIS links the national central beneficial ownership registers of EU Member States and is accessible via the European e-Justice Portal. It covers:
- Companies and other legal entities,
- Trusts and other types of legal arrangements.
BORIS provides a single EU-wide access and search layer for beneficial ownership information. It allows users to identify relevant beneficial ownership data across Member States without navigating each national system individually.
Importantly, BORIS does not replace national registers and does not create a single supranational database. Beneficial ownership data remains:
- Collected, maintained, and legally defined at national level,
- Subject to national access rules and data scope.
For AML purposes, BORIS improves cross-border discoverability and efficiency, while the legal evidentiary value of beneficial ownership information continues to depend on the underlying national register and its data.
Source: European e-Justice Portal