On 26 June 2017, the new German anti money laundering act has
entered into force. The act provides for the establishment of a
German transparency register. The new law obliges all corporate
entities (companies, partnerships) that are registered in the
German commercial register to report their beneficial owner to the
German transparency register. The same applies to other private law
corporations (coops, associations, private law foundations) and
trusts.
In the case of corporate entities, each natural person who
ultimately owns or controls more than 25% of the shares or votes or
exercises similar control is considered a beneficial owner. This
includes participations of this size held by a nominee. If a
corporate entity has no beneficial owner that meets the
aforementioned control requirements, the managing director will be
recorded in the transparency register as the beneficial owner. All
changes to the status of beneficial owner have to be reported to
the
