Mandatory UBO registration in Lithuania

Section 1 of Article 25 of the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of the Republic of Lithuania:

• All legal entities established in Lithuania (except those whose only participant is the state or municipality) must receive, update and store accurate information about their Ultimate Beneficial owners (UBO):
  • Name, Surname;
  • Personal code, date of birth (if a personal identification number is not provided under
    the legislation of a foreign state);
  • State which issued ID document, place of residence;
  • Owned property rights and scope (percentage of shares, percentage of voting
    rights`) or other control rights (Chairman of the Board, Member of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, Senior Chief Executive Officer, other positions related to percentage of transferred voting rights);
• This information must be provided to the Legal entities register (UBO subsystem JANGIS) no later than 10 days from the data change.
• UBOs must disclose their identity to the legal entity‘s representative fulfilling the obligation to provide data.

What is an UBO?

• a natural person who is the owner of a legal person and holds more than 25% of shares, stocks, contributions and / or votes, benefits from it:
  • Direct owner - a natural person who owns 25% and one share or more than 25% of the client's equity.
  • Indirect owner - a natural person who controls a company or several companies that own 25% and one share or more than 25% of the client's ownership share.
• a natural person who controls the legal person otherwise, such as the right to appoint or remove the head of the legal person, to take strategic decisions;
• a natural person who controls a legal person otherwise, for example, is its manager, chairman or member of the board or other collegial body.

Why is the provision of information about beneficiaries mandatory?

• The obligation is provided for in the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing;
• Prerequisite for access to services in financial institutions (e.g. account opening, monetary transactions, transactions, etc;
• Required for financial institutions through periodic data updates and regular monitoring of business relationships and financial transactions;
• Other entities, such as auditors, bailiffs, notaries and others, are obliged to use the data of the UBO subsystem (JANGIS) for the provision of services;
• Greater transparency and public confidence;
• Assistance in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing etc;

Legal liability

Non-compliance with the above requirements and non-disclosure of information entails administrative liability:

• For legal entities 500 – 2400 Eur;
• For managers of legal entities 2100 – 6000 Eur;

Article 216 of the Criminal Code (legalization of criminal assets) provides for a fine or imprisonment of up to 7 years.

How to provide information on UBOs?

• Only in electronic form - connect to the customer self service system of the Center of Registers (with electronic signature, via e banking);
• Details of the beneficiaries are provided by the head of the legal entity or an authorized person;
• In order to authorize a person to provide data, the authorization must be granted by logging in through the customer self service system of the Center of Registers or a paper authorization form prepared by the Center of Registers.