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Dutch Finance Minister Proposes Law To Restrict UBO Register Access
The Dutch minister of finance has presented a draft law, “Amendment Act Restricting Access to Ultimate Beneficial Owners Register”, to the House of Representatives.
The proposed legislation seeks to tighten regulations surrounding access to information on the ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) of companies and other legal entities. It also aims to enhance privacy and security by limiting access to UBO registers.
As proposed, only competent authorities, entities subject to customer due diligence obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering Directives, and parties involved in sanctions compliance, monitoring and enforcement would be granted access.
The legislation follows a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling at the end of 2022 that the benefit of public access is not proven, and can interfere with the private lives of those on the registers.
DBS Hit By $1.3m Fine For Monitoring Failures In Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has issued a HK$10m ($1.3m) fine to the local subsidiary of DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, for violations of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws.
The regulator found that from 2012 to 2019 the bank failed to continuously monitor and conduct enhanced due diligence during “high risk” business situations. DBS also failed to keep records on some of the customers involved, the HKMA said.
The case came to light following an HKMA investigation of DBS’ systems and compliance controls.
The HKMA said the penalty was mitigated by DBS’ cooperation and its lack of previous violations of Hong Kong’s AML/CTF laws.
