Luxembourg: Access to the register of beneficial owners

New procedure for the registered entities to access their own data

In brief

On 22 November 2022, following the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), online public access to the Luxembourg register of beneficial owners (RBO) was temporarily suspended.

On 16 December 2022, online access to the RBO was re-established for professionals subject to the amended law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing ("Professionals"), such as professionals from the financial and insurance sectors, auditors, real estate agents and developers, persons carrying out a family office activity, notaries and lawyers.

On 1 February 2023, the Luxembourg Business Register (LBR) announced that all entities registered with the Luxembourg trade and companies register that have made an RBO declaration will be receiving a confidential code allowing them to access their own RBO data and order an RBO extract even though they do not qualify as Professionals.

For further information on what these developments mean for your organization, please get in touch with your usual Baker McKenzie contact.


Contents

In more detail

Unlimited access to the register of beneficial owners deemed invalid

Following a judgment of the CJEU dated 22 November 2022, the general public's access to information on beneficial ownership provided for in Article 30 paragraph 5 c) of Directive (EU) 2018/843 of 30 May 2018, amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36 EU was deemed invalid.

Accordingly, the Luxembourg Ministry of Justice, in consultation with the LBR, which is responsible for managing the RBO, decided to temporarily suspend public access to the RBO via the internet portal of the LBR.

As a result, the Professionals no longer had access to the RBO.

The Professionals include credit institutions, professionals from the financial and insurance sectors, auditors, real estate agents and developers, persons carrying out a family office activity, notaries and lawyers.

New LBR procedure for the Professionals to access the RBO

The LBR has created a new procedure for the Professionals to access the RBO as further detailed in a communiqué from the LBR and Circular LBR 22/01.

The Professionals (and their designated internal users) are able to view the RBO data and order RBO extracts once they have sent a completed and signed agreement and annex to the LBR, and their "client" account is opened, subject to the following prerequisites:

  1. They must be a Professional.
  2. They must be in possession of a product issued by Luxtrust SA.
  3. They must have signed an agreement with LBR governing access to the RBO consultation and its technical annex.

New LBR procedure for the registered entities to access their own RBO data

The LBR has adopted a new procedure allowing all entities registered with the Luxembourg trade and companies register that have made an RBO declaration to access their own RBO data and order an RBO extract.

As per the process described by the LBR, those entities will be receiving, at their registered office address, a postal letter containing a personal and confidential access code, valid for three years. With that access code, the registered entities will be able to connect to the RBO portal to access the RBO details of their entity and to order an extract of their entity.


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