Privacy and Cookie Policy

We have appointed a Data Protection Liaison Officer, Heather Murray, for you to contact if you have any questions regarding this privacy notice, our privacy practices or if you wish to exercise your data rights.  Our Data Protection Liaison Officer can be reached by e-mail at: dataprotection@rbo.gov.ie. We value your opinions. Should you have any questions or comments related to this privacy notice, please contact us at: dataprotection@rbo.gov.ie.

Irish companies have a statutory requirement to file their beneficial owner’s details with the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO). This new legal requirement was brought in by the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) which came into force on 25 June 2015. Since 15th November 2016, Irish companies have already had a requirement to hold an internal register of beneficial owners. A further Directive known as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD), came into force on 09 July 2018 and includes a number of amendments aimed at further strengthening the modernised EU anti-money laundering regime established under 4AMLD. These amendments include additional transparency provisions around beneficial ownership, enhanced due diligence measures around high-risk third countries, and transparency measures around the use of prepaid cards. 5AMLD also seeks to broaden the categories of “obliged entities” that are subject to the provisions of the EU anti-money laundering regime, to include, most notably, virtual currency exchange platforms and wallet providers. The Directives aim at further contributing to the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing by strengthening the existing rules and making them more consistent across all EU Member States.  The changes bring a more robust risk-based approach to improve the management of money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

One of the requirements under 4AMLD and 5AMLD has been the establishment of a Central Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO).

The requirement for companies and industrial and provident societies to file details of their beneficial owners with the RBO has been transposed into Irish law by the Department of Finance’s Statutory Instrument (SI) Number 110 of 2019. The SI states that the RBO shall be maintained by the Registrar of Companies

Companies are legally obliged to file their beneficial ownership data with the RBO within 5 months of it opening. Failure to file within this 5-month period can result in the company being fined and prosecuted.

Once the company makes its initial filing, it will only need to file again if or when there is a material change in the composition of the beneficial owner(s). Companies are required to file any changes within 14 days of the change happening, and failure to do so could also result in the company being fined and prosecuted.

For the purposes of the AML Regulations, the term “beneficial owner” is as defined in Article 3(6)(a) of 4AMLD and refers to the natural person(s) who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity through direct or indirect ownership of a sufficient percentage of the shares or voting rights or ownership interest in that company, or through control via other means.

Any person who holds or controls 25% or more of the company’s shares or voting rights (whether directly or indirectly) is a beneficial owner. Companies are also obliged to register any individual who controls the company by any other means as a beneficial owner.

Information must be entered for each beneficial owner, one at a time, though an on-line portal on the RBO website – www.rbo.gov.ie. There is no filing fee.

The information to be filed with the RBO in respect of each beneficial owner will include:

• ● Forename and Surname.
• ● Date of birth.
• ● Residential address.
• ● a statement of the nature and extent of the interest held by each beneficial owner, or the nature and extent of control exercised by, each such beneficial owner.
• ● the date on which each natural person was entered in the company’s own register as a beneficial owner of the corporate entity.
• ● the date on which each natural person who has ceased to be a beneficial owner of the corporate entity, ceased to be such an owner.
• ● If no natural persons are identified there shall be entered in the register the names of the natural person(s) who hold the position(s) of senior managing official(s) of the company.
• ● Details of the presenter making the entry in the RBO on behalf of the company will also be required, i.e. name, address, phone number, e-mail address and capacity in which they are filing.

Further information on the RBO can be viewed at www.rbo.gov.ie.

There will be two tiers of access to data on the Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO).

Tier One: unrestricted access to RBO data will be provided to authorized officers of the following organisations:

• ● An Garda Síochána.
• ● the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Ireland.
• ● the Revenue Commissioners.
• ● the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
• ● the Central Bank of Ireland.
• ● the Department of Justice & Equality.
• ● the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA).
• ● the Law Society of Ireland.
• ● the General Council of the Bar of Ireland.
• ● the designated accountancy body[1].

and

• ● An inspector appointed by the Director of Corporate Enforcement under section 764(1) of the Companies Act 2014.

The Garda Síochána, Revenue Commissioners, competent authority and CAB may disclose the information in the central Register to any corresponding competent authority of another Member State.

Tier Two: Restricted access to RBO data will be made available to designated persons required to conduct customer due diligence tests and to report suspicious transactions (e.g. financial institutions, accountants, auditors, tax advisers, legal professionals and dealers in expensive goods such as houses, cars, jewelry, etc.)

Tier One: Unrestricted access to data on the RBO will include:

• ● Forename and Surname.
• ● Date of birth.
• ● Residential address.
• ● a statement of the nature and extent of the interest held by each beneficial owner, or the nature and extent of control exercised by, each such beneficial owner.
• ● the date on which each natural person was entered in the company’s own register as a beneficial owner of the corporate entity.
• ● the date on which each natural person who has ceased to be a beneficial owner of the corporate entity, ceased to be such an owner.
• ● If no natural persons are identified there shall be entered in the register the names of the natural person(s) who hold the position(s) of senior managing official(s) of the company.
• ● Details of the presenter making the entry in the RBO on behalf of the company i.e. forename and surname, address, phone number, e-mail address and capacity in which they are filing.

Tier Two: Restricted access will include access to the following RBO data:

• ● Forename and Surname.
• ● Month and Year of birth.
• ● Nationality.
• ● Country of residence.
• ● the nature and extent of the beneficial interest held.

 Parties entitled to “restricted access” will not see the day of birth or address of the beneficial owner.

We will retain your personal information as needed to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Information will be deleted from the central register if 10 years have elapsed from the dissolution (should such occur) of the relevant entity.

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

You have certain rights under data-protection law in relation to how we use your personal information. These rights are in some circumstances limited by the requirements of the information that must be recorded on the RBO.

You have the right, free of charge, to:

• ● Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You can do this by completing a Subject Access Request (SAR) form. A copy of the form is available here.

• ● *Rectify any inaccurate personal information we hold about you (*Note: If an inaccuracy is identified in the data held by the RBO, the Registrar of the RBO cannot summarily correct the data – it is the company which must rectify the data on the RBO by filing the correct data).

• ● Restrict processing of your personal information in certain limited circumstances (e.g. minor or others).

• ● Not be subject to a decision which is based solely on automated processing where that decision produces a legal effect on you or otherwise significantly affects you. We do not make automated decisions of this nature.

You can Make a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC) if you have concerns about how we process your personal data.

These rights are in some circumstances limited by data-protection legislation. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us at:  dataprotection@rbo.gov.ie. We may take measures to verify your identify. We will do this by reference to copies of acceptable identification documentation supplied by you.

We will endeavour to respond to your request within a month.  If we are unable to deal with your request within a month we may extend this period by a further two months and if this occurs we will contact you and explain why.

Where you fail to provide the personal data required by the RBO, or where you make a statement that is false in a material particular, or where you provide information that is frivolous or vexatious, you may be found guilty of an offence under Statutory Instrument No 110/2019 – EU (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations 2019 and will be liable on summary conviction to a class A fine  or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you prior to the changes taking effect by posting a notice on our website.

on legislation. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us at:  dataprotection@rbo.gov.ie. We may take measures to verify your identify. We will do this by reference to copies of acceptable identification documentation supplied by you.

We will endeavour to respond to your request within a month.  If we are unable to deal with your request within a month we may extend this period by a further two months and if this occurs we will contact you and explain why.

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Cookies can record your preferences when visiting a particular site and can help identify user trends for statistical analysis of our site. This can enable us, over time, to provide a better experience on our site by improving content, modifying navigation and generally making our site more user friendly. Without cookies, a web server has no memory of anything about a user’s previous visits. It is important to note that accepting cookies used on our site does not give us access to any personal information. Most browsers automatically accept cookies by default, but you can usually refuse cookies or selectively accept cookies by adjusting the preferences in your browser.

By continuing to use our website without changing the settings, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

For more information click here for an overview of privacy at Google

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