“The President of the Republic has enacted the decree altering the legal regime of the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership, transposing Article 74 of Directive (EU) 2024/1640, concerning the mechanisms to be established by member states to prevent the financial system’s use for money laundering or terrorist financing,” a statement from the Presidency’s official website reads.
The Central Register of Beneficial Ownership (CRBO) is a database on private entities (such as companies) that any citizen can access through authentication with a Citizen Card or Digital Mobile Key.
This legal regime change was approved at a Council of Ministers meeting on the 3rd of last month and aligns Portuguese rules with the Court of Justice of the European Union’s rulings on access to registry data on national platforms.
According to the Council of Ministers’ statement, the decree-law will now require a demonstration of legitimate interest to access the CRBO information, in line with the Court of Justice of the European Union’s jurisprudence.
The government stated that the change “aims to ensure a fair balance between protecting fundamental rights, such as respecting privacy and protecting personal data, and pursuing a general interest objective, like protecting the EU’s financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Currently, when a citizen intends to consult a company’s register, they must indicate the reason for the consultation (freely stating the reason for access), without the need to invoke “legitimate interest,” as will now be required.
Consulting company data allows verification of the entity’s legal nature, Economic Activity Code, address, institutional email provided to the state, and the individuals who own or control the entity (the percentage of share capital, whether ownership is direct or indirect, if they have voting rights, if they exercise any other form of direct or indirect control, or hold any management position, for example).
