Beneficial ownership

Beneficial ownership identifies the natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity or asset, even when another person or company holds legal title.

Ultimate beneficial owner: The natural person who ultimately owns or controls an entity or asset, directly or through intermediaries. This is the person an ownership analysis seeks to identify.
Anti-money laundering: Laws, regulations, and controls designed to prevent criminals from disguising the origins of illicit funds. Identifying hidden owners helps institutions assess who may be behind a transaction.
Trust law: The body of law governing arrangements in which trustees hold property for beneficiaries. Trusts divide legal title, control, and benefit among distinct people.
Corporate transparency: The availability of reliable information about companies, their activities, and their ownership. Beneficial-owner disclosure is one component of broader company transparency.
Beneficial ownership threshold: A specified ownership or control level above which a person must be identified as a beneficial owner. Different thresholds can leave smaller but meaningful ownership interests undisclosed.
Ownership chain: A sequence of direct and indirect ownership interests linking a person to an entity or asset. Tracing each link reveals who owns an entity through other entities.
Know your customer: Procedures financial institutions use to verify customers and understand their identities and risks. Customer checks commonly require identifying the natural persons behind corporate customers.
Trust beneficiary: A person entitled to receive benefits from property held in a trust. A beneficiary may benefit from assets without holding their legal title.
Privacy: The ability of individuals to control access to information about themselves and their lives. Publishing ownership records can expose personal information and create safety risks.
Beneficial ownership data standard: A structured format for representing and exchanging information about beneficial ownership. Common formats can improve comparison and linkage across registries.

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