President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the bill “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts to Simplify the Provision of Information for Financial Monitoring”, which simplifies the provision of information on ultimate beneficiaries to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs.
The document provides for the possibility of fast and convenient electronic submission of information by business representatives and other legal entities for financial monitoring in order to counteract the legalization (laundering) of funds obtained by criminal means.
"I will not allow the destruction of the country's necessary tool for combating money laundering and ensuring transparency. Ukraine became the first country in the world to publicly display information about the ultimate beneficiaries of legal entities, setting an example for others. The process of submitting information on beneficiaries this year was improperly organized. That is why I initiate the possibility of submitting the necessary information in electronic form - without queues and adding unnecessary paper documents. Instead, you can make a few clicks in the Diia app. Comfortable conditions for doing business, transparency, and access to information are among the priorities of my work," the Head of State said.
It will also be possible to automatically check the information provided by companies against the data of state registers, which will replace the long-term reconciliation of paper documents with electronic registers in manual mode and significantly speed up the registration process.
The draft law also provides for the preparation and approval by the responsible authority of a detailed methodology for determining the ultimate beneficiary for legal entities and carrying out explanatory work in this regard. It is proposed that legal entities have at least six months to submit information from the date of approval of such a methodology, and those who have already submitted information have the opportunity to clarify it.
These innovations were adopted in compliance with the norms of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, as well as with the aim of implementing the standards of the Financial Action Task Force in the legislation of Ukraine and harmonization of national legislation with EU legislation.
The draft law initiated by the President envisages the implementation of all international obligations of Ukraine and the maximum simplification of the process of submitting information by Ukrainian companies and its further processing.