Finance ministry proposes improving verification of ultimate beneficiaries of companies

The Finance Ministry of Ukraine plans to improve verification of ultimate beneficiaries of companies with the purpose of verifying if they are mentioned in the register as ultimate beneficiaries, owners or only nominal persons.

The revised bill amending some Ukrainian laws of Ukraine in the sphere of avoiding and combating money laundering, funding of terrorism and financing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has been posted on the ministry's website.

In particular, it is proposed to attribute the obligation to establish ultimate beneficiaries to the elements of financial monitoring for most financial institutions and representatives of regulated professions, which include notaries, auditors, accountants, lawyers, attorneys, realtors and tax advisers.

According to the Finance Ministry, the bill also provides for the introduction of new rules for the financial transactions of high-ranking government officials and civil servants, as well as judges, prosecutors, people's deputies, members of their families, obliging them to provide the necessary documents about their financial and property status.

At the same time, the bill expands the circle of primary financial monitoring subjects, which are obliged to inform the State Financial Monitoring Service about suspicious financial transactions, at the expense of persons providing information and consulting services on taxation, according to an explanatory note to the bill.

Among other innovations is also the relaxation of determining the circle of politically significant persons on the basis of declarations filed to the National Agency on of Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the creation of the state register of national public figures and their families.

At the same time, the bill establishes the obligation for payment systems to accompany money transfers with information about the payer and the recipient, and also to ensure the adequacy of this information.