As a financial intermediary we are obliged to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and are monitored by the VQF SRO. An integral part of the due diligence obligations includes the identification of the contracting party (including legal and representative) beneficial owner(s).

An Ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) is a natural person who owns or has significant control over an organisation. A company or legal entity may have one or more UBOs. A UBO is always a natural person and that person may have a direct or indirect interest in the entity.

Beneficial owners (UBO) are:

Persons who own 25% or more of the shares in the enterprise.
Persons who otherwise exercise effective control over the company.

Persons with 25% or more of the shares in the company (UBO)

In a company, persons who have 25% or more of the company shares can be considered beneficial owners (UBO).

Examples

The "Example Limited" has the entire shares distributed among four shareholders at 25% each. This profit entitlement makes them all UBOs of the association. And so they would all have to be declared (incl. documents). If only one person had 25% or more of the shares, he would be the sole UBO.
Tom is the only member who finances the "Specimen Limited" (so owns 100% of the company shares). He has no formal role in this company, but acts as its external stakeholder. In this case, Tom is a UBO for the "Specimen AG" due to an actual control (incl. profit claim) he exercises over the company.
Emma is the sole owner of the "Yoga Studio Example". Thus, she owns 100% of the shares and is the only UBO of the yoga studio.

If no one owns 25% or more of the company's shares, then the control holder(s) (fictitious UBO) must be specified.

Persons exercising effective control otherwise (control holder(s) - fictious UBO)

If your company does not have a UBO, you must designate one or more fictious UBOs. A fictitious UBO is a natural person who can actually control the company and dispose of the corresponding assets.

Examples

The "Sample Limited" has over 150 shareholders. No shareholder owns 25% or more of the shares. However, the managing director is entitled to make decisions and disposes of the existing assets. The managing director in this case would be a fictitious UBO.
The special purpose association "Organisation of the Example Festival", which is organized as a simple partnership, consists of 5 members. All of them own 20% of the shares. However, the managing director is entitled to make decisions alone and disposes of the available assets. In this case, the managing director would be a fictitious UBO.

Prieuré Saint-François-de-Sales - Genève

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