Reviewing Beneficial Ownership Legislation (AL0077)

Brief Description of the Commitment

The Republic of Albania until 2021 did not have a mechanism to identify the real beneficial owners of the entities registered in Albania. Therefore, the MONEYVAL Experts Committee recommended the establishment of a registry to provide the registration of the real beneficial owners. In the framework of the ICRG/FATF and MONEYVAL recommendations, the Albanian government in July 2020 approved the Law No.112/2020 “On the Beneficial Owners Register”, which foresaw the establishment of the first register of its kind in Albania, where the data of beneficial owners of the reporting entities operating in Albania would be registered. In December 2021 the relevant by-laws and supportive legal acts that provided the procedure and documents to be submitted by the reporting entities, were also approved. During this period of time, the reporting entities, in accordance with the legislation into force, carried out the registration of the beneficial owners’ data. Meanwhile, as the beneficial owners Register was populated with data by the reporting entities, the NBC has been engaged in cooperation with the groups of interest, to point out those elements in the legislation that may require a review in order to facilitate the registration procedures.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? The problems encountered by the reporting entities during the identification of their beneficial owner, related to the notion of the beneficial owner, the procedure followed and accompanying documentation required.

2. What are the causes of the problem? The obligation for the registration of the beneficial owners’ data is a new procedure for all the reporting entities operating in Albania. The entities’ confrontation with this new notion of beneficial owner and the implementation of a new procedure for the registration of the beneficial owners’ data, requires the knowledge of the applicable legislation in order to correctly implement it and review it if deemed necessary.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? There have been organized meeting with the groups of interest, where it has been discussed about the difficulties faced by the reporting entities in the understandability and implementation of the legislation.

2. What solution are you proposing? Consultations with the groups of interest aiming to identify the difficulties faced by the reporting entities in the daily operation regarding the understandability and implementation of the legislation. Taking into consideration of the suggestions/recommendations and analyzing of the problematics faced by the entities, in order to reflect them in the legislation if necessary.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? Reviewing the legislation and identifying the necessary changes in order to improve the procedures followed for the registration of beneficial owner data.

Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date

1. A legislation that provides a simple, comprehensible, and applicable procedure within the deadlines, in order to fulfill the legal obligations for the registration of data of the beneficial owners. institutes and the procedure that the current legislation in force provides for | - Summary report on the suggestions regarding potential legal amendments | 2024

2. Consultative meeting with the interests groups about the potential legal amendments. | - Summary report on the suggestions regarding potential legal amendments. | 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Review the legislation in beneficial owners’ registration