Art. 63 Obligations of legal entities | Anti-money laundering regulation (AMLR) | AML

This article sets out the core obligations for legal entities created in the Union regarding beneficial ownership information.

It builds directly on Articles 51 to 57, which define who qualifies as a beneficial owner, and connects to the central register framework established under Directive (EU) 2024/1640.

The article covers the full lifecycle of beneficial ownership obligations: obtaining and holding the information, reporting it to the central register, keeping it current, sharing it with obliged entities during customer due diligence, and making it available to competent authorities on request.

It also addresses the situation where no beneficial owner can be identified, requiring legal entities to instead disclose their senior managing officials as a fallback.

Important points:

Obtain, hold, and report beneficial ownership information to the central register without undue delay after creation, and update it within 28 calendar days of any change, with at least annual verification.
Where no beneficial owner can be identified after exhausting all means under Articles 51 to 57, provide a written justification and the details of all senior managing officials instead.
Legal entities must make this information available to competent authorities upon request, and where a fallback disclosure applies, retain that information for 5 years after dissolution.

1. All legal entities created in the Union shall obtain and hold adequate, accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information.
2. Legal entities shall provide, in addition to information about their legal owners, information on the beneficial owners to obliged entities where the obliged entities are applying customer due diligence measures in accordance with Chapter III.
1. A legal entity shall report beneficial ownership information to the central register without undue delay after its creation. Any change to that information shall be reported to the central register without undue delay and, in any case, within 28 calendar days thereof. The legal entity shall regularly verify that it holds up-to-date information on its beneficial ownership. As a minimum, such verification shall be performed annually whether as a self-standing process or as part of other periodical processes, such as the submission of financial statement.
2. The beneficial owners of a legal entity as well as the legal entities and, in the case of legal arrangements, their trustees or persons holding an equivalent position, which are part of the ownership or control structure of a legal entity, shall provide that legal entity with all the information necessary for the legal entity to comply with the requirements of this Chapter or to respond to any request for additional information received pursuant to Article 10(4) of Directive (EU) 2024/1640.
1. Where, having exhausted all possible means of identification pursuant to Articles 51 to 57, no person is identified as beneficial owner, or where there is substantial and justified uncertainty on the part of the legal entity that the persons identified are the beneficial owners, legal entities shall keep records of the actions taken in order to identify their beneficial owners.
1. In the cases referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article, when providing beneficial ownership information in accordance with Article 20 of this Regulation and Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2024/1640, legal entities shall provide the following:
  1. a statement that there is no beneficial owner or that the beneficial owners could not be determined, accompanied by a justification as to why it was not possible to determine the beneficial owner in accordance with Articles 51 to 57 of this Regulation and what constitutes uncertainty about the ascertained information;
  2. the details of all natural persons who hold the position of senior managing officials in the legal entity equivalent to the information required under Article 62(1), second subparagraph, point (a) of this Regulation.
2. For the purpose of this paragraph, ‘senior managing officials’ means the natural persons who are the executive members of the management body, as well as the natural persons who exercise executive functions within a legal entity and are responsible, and accountable to the management body, for the day-to-day management of the entity.
1. Legal entities shall make the information collected pursuant to this Article available, upon request and without delay, to competent authorities.
1. The information referred to in paragraph 4 shall be maintained for 5 years after the date on which the legal entities are dissolved or otherwise cease to exist, whether by persons designated by the entity to retain the documents, or by administrators or liquidators or other persons involved in the dissolution of the entity. The identity and contact details of the person responsible for retaining the information shall be reported to the central registers.