Seychelles beneficial ownership database

Industry News

Seychelles Beneficial ownership database

The Beneficial Ownership Act, 2020 (“BO Act”) came into force on 28 August 2020 along with the Beneficial Ownership Regulations (“BO Regulations”) imposing new requirements on Seychelles Legal Persons and Legal Arrangements (“Entities”).
86 / 100

Seychelles Beneficial ownership database Act, 2020 (“BO Act”) came into force on 28 August 2020 along with the Beneficial Ownership Regulations (“BO Regulations”) imposing new requirements on Seychelles Legal Persons and Legal Arrangements (“Entities”).  

The Seychelles Beneficial ownership database has made great strides in combating money laundering and other illegal financial activities.

By requiring companies to disclose information about their ultimate owners and managers, the database helps promote transparency and accountability in the country’s offshore financial industry. It is a positive development that will help build confidence in Seychelles as a financial center.

This database is a testament to the Seychelles Government’s commitment to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing standards.

This is in line with global initiatives such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations on beneficial owner transparency.

Seychelles has shown leadership in this area and is an example for other countries to follow.

Seychelles Beneficial ownership database assists law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting financial crimes. It also supports the due diligence process of banks and other financial institutions, enabling them to identify and manage risks associated with their customers.

This will ultimately benefit Seychelles’ reputation as a well-regulated financial center with a responsibility to seriously combat financial crime.

Additionally, the database was developed with privacy and data protection in mind.

The Seychelles government has taken steps to ensure that the data collected remains confidential and is only used to combat financial crime.

This demonstrates the country’s commitment to protecting the privacy rights of individuals and ensures that the database complies with international data protection laws.

Overall, the Seychelles Beneficial ownership database is a positive development for the country’s offshore financial industry. This demonstrates the government’s commitment to fighting financial crime, promoting transparency, and upholding international standards. This database will benefit not only Seychelles but the entire global community as it contributes to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Seychelles Beneficial ownership database / Under the provisions of the BO Act:  

  • Legal Persons are companies including overseas companies, associations, international business companies, protected cell companies, special license companies, partnerships, and foundations. 
  • Legal Arrangements are resident trustees of international trusts and general partners of limited partnerships. 

BO Act | Seychelles Beneficial ownership database

The BO Act makes provisions for a secure centralized, but not public, Seychelles Beneficial ownership database (“FIU Database”) maintained by the Seychelles Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”), accessible only by authorized Governmental bodies in Seychelles. 

The FIU has recently launched a database for resident agents to input information of Beneficial Owners (“BO”) of Entities by 1 May 2021. 

The information to be input in the FIU Database is that declared by the BO through the Declaration of Seychelles Beneficial ownership database (“Declaration of BO”), which Entities had to comply with by 31 January 2021, pursuant to section 18 of the BO Act; including the obligation to maintain an updated Register of Beneficial Owners (“Register of BO”) which consolidates the information of all known BOs for each entity as declared in the Declaration of BO. 

OMC Group

OMC Group strongly encourages clients who have yet to submit the Declaration of BO of all known BOs for each of their Entities, to do so as quickly as possible to ensure that the BO information of their Entities is successfully uploaded onto the FIU Database by the prescribed deadline.

Clients who provide a Declaration of BO near the deadline, risk potential administrative penalties to their Entities for failure to comply with the provisions of the BO Act.  

Entities that fail to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on their Declaration of BO and Register of BO, shall be liable to a penalty of SCR50,000 (approximately USD2,500 depending on the exchange rate). 

In addition, every director or counselor, as the case may be, of Entities that fail to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on their Declaration of BO and Register of BO, shall also be liable to a penalty of SCR50,000 (approximately USD2,500 depending on the exchange rate). 

If you are interested in reading more about us, access our blog

Get exclusive content, expert tips, and industry news that will help you keep up to date.

Let's work together

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Choose the area that you are interested in:
Checkboxes
Checkboxes (copy)