Area: Finance
Competent authority: MF
EZU URL: .nan
Initiative ID: 885
Initiative accepted and completed: '2017-12-28'
Initiative classified in EZU: .nan
Initiative forwarded in response: '2017-12-08'
Initiative published: '2017-12-08'
Initiative submitted: '2017-12-05'
Response from the competent authority: Answer from the Ministry of Finance:Article
  41 of the Act on Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Official Gazette
  of the Republic of Slovenia, No 68/16; hereinafter referred to as the "AML/CFT Act")
  stipulates that business entities entered in the Business Register of Slovenia must
  establish information about their beneficial owner or owners in the manner set out
  in Articles 35 and 36 of the AML/CFT Act, while the sixth paragraph of the same
  Article specifies the business entities to which the provisions of Article 41 of
  the AML/CFT Act do not apply.The Ministry of Finance understands that the obligation
  to register information on beneficial owners is a novelty for business entities
  and entails a certain administrative burden, which we do not consider to be disproportionate
  to the purpose for which the obligation is imposed.The concept of beneficial ownership
  is already well known in the context of the system of prevention of money laundering
  and terrorist financing (PPDFT) and has so far been used (in addition to the authorities
  competent for the prevention, detection and prosecution of ML/TF) mainly by the
  obliged persons for the implementation of the PPDFT measures referred to in Article
  4 of the PPDFT-1. However, the general public has been introduced to the concept
  by the introduction of the register of beneficial owners as an innovation of the
  ZPPDFT-1, which transposes the provision of Article 30 of the EU Directive 2015/849
  into the Slovenian legal order. The above-mentioned European regulation provides
  for the obligation of the Member States to ensure that information on beneficial
  owners is kept in a central register and that such information is relevant, accurate
  and up-to-date. It also requires business and other legal entities established in
  the territory of a Member State to obtain and keep available adequate, accurate
  and up-to-date information on their beneficial ownership. The need for accurate
  and up-to-date information on the beneficial owner is one of the key factors in
  finding criminals who might otherwise hide their identity behind a business structure.
  Notwithstanding the fact that associations are not high-risk in terms of money laundering
  and terrorist financing, the requirements of international standards (FATF Recommendations)
  also apply to not-for-profit organisations, and therefore they are not exempted
  from the obligation to establish information on the beneficial owner under the provisions
  of the FATF Act.The purpose of the establishment of a register of beneficial owners
  is therefore to ensure the transparency of the ownership structures of business
  entities and to prevent the misuse of business entities for money laundering and
  terrorist financing purposes.The purpose of the register is to ensure the transparency
  of the ownership structures of business entities and to prevent the misuse of business
  entities for the purposes of money laundering and terrorist financing. In this context,
  we would also point out that the beneficial ownership of a business entity may differ
  from its legal ownership, which follows from the definition of a beneficial owner,
  which is any natural person who is the ultimate owner of the entity, or who controls
  or otherwise dominates it, or any natural person on whose behalf a transaction is
  carried out. The beneficial owner of an entity which does not have business holdings
  (this includes associations) and in which, as a consequence, participation in the
  management by way of a business holding, share or participation in the capital is
  not possible, shall be deemed to be any natural person who represents such an entity.
  The obligation of business entities to keep their own records of information on
  their beneficial owner and to enter such information in the register of beneficial
  owners cannot be delegated to AJPES as the operator of the register, as each individual
  business entity is responsible for the information entered. According to the Ministry
  of Finance, this obligation does not represent an exceptional administrative burden,
  as the entry in the register is made via the AJPES web portal and the data on business
  entities entered in the Business Register of Slovenia, which is the case for associations,
  will be obtained automatically upon entry in the register on the basis of the registration
  number. Personal data on the beneficial owner will also be automatically obtained
  from the Central Population Register or the Tax Register on the basis of the entry
  of the tax number. The whole process should therefore not take more than a few minutes.
  Only in cases where it is not possible to download the individual data from the
  Central Population Register or the Tax Register, the process will take as long as
  the physical entry of the characters into the application. The entry of data is
  technically conditional on a qualified digital certificate, which is also a requirement
  for other services within the AJPES services, and we therefore believe that business
  entities are already mostly in possession of the relevant certificate or authorisation
  within the e-Authorisation system, which verifies the rights of users to submit
  data (e.g. authorisation for an accountant to submit an annual report, which can
  be supplemented by authorisation for entry in the register of beneficial owners).
  With regard to the financial cost related to the qualified certificate for electronic
  signature, we therefore note that the association can make the entry itself or the
  entry can be made by its representative, provided that he/she is logged in as a
  user on the AJPES web portal and has a qualified certificate for electronic signature,
  or the representative can authorise another natural or legal person (proxy) to enter
  data in the register, who must be logged in as a user on the AJPES web portal and
  must have a qualified certificate for electronic signature added to the AJPES e-Permissions
  system for the purpose of entering the data in the register. Accordingly, associations
  do not actually need to obtain a digital qualified certificate to enter their data
  in the register, provided that they authorise another person to do so, and therefore
  we do not consider that entering their data in the register will impose a significant
  financial burden on them.The AJPES website also contains the Instruction Manual
  for the use of the online application for data entry https://www.ajpes.si/Doc/Registri/Drugi_registri/Navodilo_za_uporabo_spletne_aplikacije_eRDL.pdf,
  and a more detailed instruction for the creation of e-authorisations is available
  on the website https://www.ajpes.si/Doc/AJPES/e-Pooblastila_Prirocnik_za_uporabnike.pdf.Upamo.We
  have explained in the above explanations the objective pursued by the introduction
  of the Register of Beneficial Owners, as well as the possibilities for the associations
  to fulfil their obligation under the AJMLT-1 as easily as possible. We understand
  that the introduction of the register of beneficial owners represents a novelty
  and a certain adaptation to the new obligation, also in terms of the terminology
  itself. However, we believe that it is in everyone's interest to pursue the objective
  of maximum transparency in the area of transparency of business operations in order
  to prevent abuse. We will continue to closely monitor the practical implementation
  of the provisions relating to the Register of Beneficial Owners and will also check
  the adequacy of the individual provisions relating to the different legal forms
  of entities, within the remit of the Ministry of Finance. Nevertheless, we do not
  consider that the obligations do now constitute a disproportionate burden and that
  a more detailed analysis of the data entered should await the full practical implementation
  of the provisions of the ZPPDFT-1 in this part.
Text file: 885.txt
Title: Registration of beneficial owners (ZPPDFT-1)
URL: https://www.stopbirokraciji.gov.si/pobuda/?st=885
