The «Beneficial Ownership» over Companies: balancing the Public Interest and the Private Fundamental Rights

Abstract

This paper analyses the recent regulatory developments con- cerning the identification of the beneficial ownership of the companies, with incidence in other legal entities, in order to prevent money laundering and ter- rorist financing. For this purpose, it addresses, attending to the duties of active collaboration from the obliged entities and the creation of different files by the centralized prevention bodies, the various issues that affect the fundamental rights of those who are identified as the beneficial owners of the companies and of other legal entities. The work reviews the possibilities to identify the beneficial owner according to the companies’ forms admitted in our legal system and to the cases where actualizations of shareholders and partners shall be held in the Commercial Register. On this basis, this paper tries to accommodate a harmonious solution between the public order that these regulations seek to preserve and the protection of fundamental rights and the private autonomy which shall be enjoyed by those who, legitimately, participate in companies for the development of an economic activity.