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Law no. 129/2019, for the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing

25 February 2020

On 20.02.2020, the National Office of the Trade Register issued in accordance with Law no. 129/2019, for the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing, an informative note regarding the operationalization of the Register of the real beneficiaries of the companies.

In accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned law, the legal persons of private law and the trusts registered on the Romanian territory have the obligation, in certain situations determined by the present law, to provide to the bodies empowered in the field information about their real beneficiary.

In a broad sense, the notion of a real beneficiary of a legal person, regardless of its type, refers to the person who owns or controls its capital through different legal mechanisms, so as to carry out the interests and purpose of the legal entity.

In order to be registered in the Register of the real beneficiaries of the companies, the legal representatives of the legal persons subjected to the registration in the Trade Register will submit a statement regarding the real beneficiary in the following situations: upon registration, annually, within 15 days from the approval of the annual financial statements or anytime does a modification occur regarding the identification data of the real beneficiary, within 15 days from the intervention of the modifying element.

The failure to submit the declaration in question in the previous mentioned situations and deadlines constitutes a contravention and it is sanctioned as such by the competent bodies in this matter, and  the failure to fulfill this obligation after applying the contravention sanction will lead to the more severe sanction of the dissolution of the company.

At the same time, the legal representatives of the legal persons registered in the Trade Register until 21.07.2019, the date of the entry into force of the present law, will be able to submit the declaration regarding the real beneficiary within 12 months from the entry into force of the law, respectively until 21.07.2020, provided the approval of the annual financial statements.

The request regarding the lodging of the declaration regarding the real beneficiary can be submitted in several ways: at the counter, online or by correspondence with acknowledgment of receipt, with the mention that in the situation of the last two modes of communication, the declaration regarding the real beneficiary will have to be recorded in authentic form.