There is only 1 week left until the RBO filing deadline of 22nd November 2019. 23% of companies have filed successfully to date. This will leave a huge number of companies to file in the next week.
The Registrar of Beneficial Owners (“RBO”) has advised that she does not have the power to grant an extension to the deadline and that the issue of an extension to the deadline was a matter for the Department of Finance and that the RBO was not aware of any plans to extend it. So the 77% of companies that have not yet filed will have to file as soon as possible.
John Burns, the regional development manager in Ireland for the Chartered Governance Institute, in an article in the Irish Times has called for clarity on whether there will be an extension to the filing date, given the issues that have arisen.
The RBO has advised that after the filing deadline they will write to companies to remind them of the requirement to make the filing. The RBO has the power to impose sanctions on companies that do not comply with the regulations and we are unsure as of yet when these sanctions may commence against companies that have not complied.
The RBO has also advised that the website has capacity to deal with large volumes of submissions however, as the information has to be matched the Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection (DEASP) this may slow down submissions being processed before the deadline.
The main reasons for the rejection of submissions are:-
- Wrong PPS number or date of birth (most common reasons)
- Mismatch on first name or surname
- Middle name not required according to the RBO and if you enter the middle name in either the first name or surname then it will be rejected
3,500 BEN2 forms have been filed to date with a 5% rejection rate. The BEN2 form should only be used if the beneficial owner does not have a PPS number.
How to Comply with the Regulations?
We have Beneficial Ownership Templates that you may purchase on our website that will assist firms to comply with the Beneficial Ownership Regulations. They contain a detailed and a short guide to the Regulations.
To comply with the Regulations companies must:
- Take steps to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information in respect of its beneficial owners
- The definition of a beneficial owner should be reviewed first and each criteria should be applied to the Company to determine who if any are the beneficial owners of the Company
- The information should be in accordance with the details registered with the Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection (DEASP)
- Enter the information into the Internal Beneficial Ownership Register of the Company
- File the information on the Central Register of Beneficial Owners
More Information
The RBO website has a FAQ section that should answer most queries on the RBO. Also the RBO Twitter account and LinkedIn Account contain updated information on the RBO and highlight what issues presenters should be aware of.
Note: The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.
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