Beneficial Owner Central Registry as a Tool to Fight Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Abstract

This article deals with the effect of the central registry of beneficial owners in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing. The main purpose of the article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the functioning of central registries of beneficial owners both at the national and European levels. The author focuses mainly on the issue of the European Central Platform as well as on the Centralized Registry of Bank Accounts. This article aims to confirm or refute the hypothesis that the current legislation is insufficient and that the established legal framework has certain gaps that may affect the original intent and goals of the central registry of beneficial owners. Within the application issues, we also deal in more detail with the question of whether the central registry of beneficial owners can be seen as reliable and whether it contains up-to-date information.