The term Final Beneficiary has been gaining importance internationally due to its central role in the transparency and integrity of societies. This term is also referred to as beneficial ownership or beneficial owners.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) defines the Final Beneficiary as the natural persons who ultimately own or control a client and/or the natural person on whose behalf a transaction is conducted. It also includes persons who exercise ultimate effective control over a legal entity including trusts.
Currently, identifying the beneficial owner has become more common practice, as having this information is relevant to combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Weapons Proliferation Financing (ML/FT/FP).
Nicaragua, as a member of GAFILAT, must have adequate regulations on the prevention of ML/FT/PM, to avoid reputational costs such as inclusion on lists of tax havens or non-cooperative countries in this area, or serious economic consequences.
One of the aspects that should be considered in national regulation is the creation of rules that regulate the transparency of legal vehicles, so that there is availability and accessibility to reliable and updated information on the final beneficiary.
In that sense, Nicaragua in its efforts for the technical and effective compliance has included a series of new laws and regulations in its national legislation, which intend to contribute to the timely identification of the Final Beneficiary.
The following are some of the laws that Nicaragua has issued in order to achieve greater regulation in this area:
- Law No. 977 “Law against the Laundering of Assets, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”.
- Law No. 1035 “Law to Reform Law No. 698, General Law of Public Records and the Code of Commerce of the Republic of Nicaragua”.
Associate
García & Bodán
Nicaragua