While the new Law 4557/2018 on the prevention and suppression of money laundering is still only a few months old and whilst the Central Registry of Beneficial Owners has not yet been implemented as foreseen, a new law has amended critical provisions of Law 4557/2018.

The new Law 4607/2019 clarifies and updates the provisions of articles 3, 11, 20 and 21 of Law 4557/2018 and in particular:

  • the amendments in Article 3 extend the scope of companies that are not obliged to register their beneficial owners in the Central Registry of Beneficial Owners, as they already ensure sufficient transparency about the actual beneficiary of the company under the applicable legislation;
  • The updated Article 11 includes the correction of omissions of Law 4557/2018l
  • The amendments to Articles 20 and 21 concern the Central Register of Beneficial Owners of Companies, Entities and Trusts that are based or taxed in Greece as well as the content and timing of the registration of the relevant information.

It is worth mentioning the amendment to Article 20, paragraph 7, which provides for free public access to the Central Register of Beneficial Owners, for a specific range of information, in order to avoid the actual exposure of the beneficial owner. The possibility of imposing a special fee for access to the said data of beneficial owners is also foreseen, the amount of which is to be determined by a decision of the Ministry of Finance.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.