As a result of the adoption of the amendment of the Act No. 297/2008 Coll. on the prevention of legalization of proceeds of criminal activity and terrorist financing (the „AML Act“), all legal entities that are not a subject of public administration or issuers of securities admitted to trading on a regulated market, are obliged to register the data about their ultimate beneficial user (hereinafter the „UBO”) in the Commercial Register or other relevant public register.

The definition of the UBO is set forth in Section 6a of the AML Act, whereby the UBO may briefly be defined as any natural person who actually controls the legal entity, the natural person – entrepreneur or the property association and any natural person for whose benefit these subjects carry out their activities.

The data about the UBO must be registered in the Commercial Register in the following extent: name, surname, birth number or date of birth, if the person has no birth number, address of permanent or other residence, nationality, type and number of ID and data establishing the status of the UBO.

The already existing legal entities, i.e. legal entities registered in the relevant register before October 31, 2018, are obliged to register the data of their UBO until December 31, 2019.

The new legal entities, i.e. legal entities registered in the Commercial Register after November 1, 2018, are obliged to register the data of their UBO in the above extent at the time of their registration.

For the sake of completeness we would also like to note that other legal entities, such as non-investment funds, non-profit organizations providing general services or foundations, must also register their UBOs, whereby they shall fulfil the mentioned obligation by registering the data in the Register of Funds, Register of Non-Profit Organizations and the Register of Foundations.

In this regard it should also be noted that the registered data about the UBO are not publicly accessible (unlike the data registered in the Register of Public Sector Partners in which the data about the UBOs still continue to be published). The data about the UBO shall only be provided to specific persons defined by law (public authorities, such as the Financial Police of the Police Force, the Slovak National Bank, courts, etc.).

Legal entities are also required to update the data about their UBO.