A draft amendment to the Companies Act which will for the first time compel businesses to disclose their beneficial owners has been placed on the order paper of Parliament.

The passing of the law will meet another International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural benchmark. The government undertook to enact amendments to the Companies Act to make the beneficial ownership framework consistent with FATF standards by the end of April 2025.

The FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards are a set of international guidelines for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. Sri Lanka’s next evaluation of its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework is scheduled for March next year.

Beneficial ownership refers to people who “ultimately” control or benefit from a company, even if they are not the official, legal owner; in other words, the “real” owner or controlling party behind a legal entity.

The proposed amendment will allow the public to inspect the details of the beneficial owners of a company upon a request being made to the Registrar of Companies “but the details of the beneficial owners of the company shall be limited to their full names and the nature and extent of beneficial ownership of the company”.

Beneficial ownership transparency makes it more difficult to conceal illicit funds and engage in corrupt activities. Making the information publicly accessible enables law enforcement, civil society organisations and the public to better monitor and investigate cases of corruption, money laundering, and other financial crimes.

The Companies (Amendment) Bill requires companies to disclose not only the full names of their beneficial owners but also their previous full names (if any); their dates and places of birth, nationalities, countries of residence, and the last known addresses; their residential addresses, business addresses, email addresses, and postal addresses of beneficial owners of the company; and (d) their national identity card numbers or passport numbers with countries of issuance, tax identification, etc.

The relevant company shall maintain a register at its registered office for at least 10 years after the date on which the record was made.

The Registrar of Companies is also mandated to maintain a register. And the company or the Registrar shall make available the details of beneficial owners upon request by the Attorney General, the Director-General of Customs, the Commissioner-General of Inland Revenue, any public authority having the responsibility for investigating or prosecuting money laundering, terrorist financing or any other criminal offences, public procurement authorities, or regulatory authorities.

Failure to disclose or providing false/misleading information is a criminal offence punishable by fines or imprisonment.

(sundaytimes.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)