In 2017 Portugal has transposed the Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council, on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing. Portuguese BOCR became effective on 1 October 2018.
Directive (EU) 2015/849 appeared as a new European Union (EU) effort to prevent money laundering and/or terrorist financing and to maintain the confidence in the Union's financial system.
The Directive aimed at increasing transparency in the identification of beneficial owners, requiring all Member States to hold information on beneficial owner of several legal entities in a national central register. The Directive entered into force on 26 June 2015, and all Member States were granted a two years deadline to transpose it into national law.
Law no. 83/2017, of 18 August (the “Money Laundering Law”) and Law no. 89/2017, of 21 August (the “Ultimate Beneficial Owner Law”) were responsible for transposing the Directive in Portugal. The later, which is already in force, establishes the legal framework for the Beneficial Owner Central Register (BOCR).
The BOCR emerged as a response to the need to identify any natural person who exercises ownership or control over a legal person in order to ensure effective transparency. The accurate information on the beneficial owner is a key factor in tracking money laundering criminals who might otherwise hide their identity behind a corporate structure.
The Money Laundering Law defines who are the beneficial owners of a legal person and the relevant criteria to presume it in case the main requirements are not possible to verify.
With the same purpose of preventing money laundering, the Portuguese Government has prohibited the issuing of bearer shares.
Decree no. 233/2018, of 21 August, which regulates the BOCR, establishing the form, term and publicity of the relevant information provided, has entered into force on 1 October 2018.