Obligation to register beneficial owners to the Commercial Register

Under the amendments to the Commercial Register Act and in connection with amendment of the Anti-money Laundering Act, almost all companies are obliged to file a notification regarding registration of their beneficial owners to the Commercial Register by 31 December 2019. This applies to both new and existing companies.

It is also important to note that if a company has already registered its beneficial owners in the Register of Public Sector Partners (RPSP), this registration does not substitute the obligation to register beneficial owners in Commercial Register and vice versa.

In 2017, the Act on the Register of Public Sector Partners (ARPSP) entered into force in Slovakia. The Act introduced the obligation to register and publish entities which receive or intend to receive funds from public resources (so-called public sector partners) and the beneficial owners of these public sector partners in a specific Register of Public Sector Partners (RPSP). The register is public and, in principle, anyone wishing to participate in procurement must be registered. Further, according to new act, beneficial owners must also be registered in the Commercial Register.

The law defines beneficial owner. However, this will need to be assessed for each company separately.