knowledge 28 September 2026 |

Beneficial Ownership Regime: Key 2026 Changes and Preparing for AMLR

Who can Access the Central Register?  The Evolving Public Access Framework

From Open Access to Legitimate Interest

The European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations 2019 (the “2019 Regulations”) originally permitted any member of the public to inspect beneficial ownership information on the Central Register, subject to limited exceptions.

This position changed following the CJEU’s ruling in the Luxembourg Business Registers cases (2022), which held that unrestricted public access to beneficial owners’ personal information constituted a serious interference with their fundamental rights to privacy and data protection under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (“Charter”), which was not appropriate, necessary or proportionate in circumstances where a “legitimate interest” in accessing the information was not required to be demonstrated.  The CJEU’s approach was recently reinforced in Jautiva (September 2026), which related to national legislation in Latvia requiring details of all shareholders in public limited companies to be made publicly available.  The CJEU held that this requirement of Latvian law is precluded under the GDPR and the Charter, absent conditions such as demonstrating a legitimate interest.

Following the Luxembourg Business Registers ruling, the 2019 Regulations were amended in 2023 to restrict public access to the Central Register to persons who can demonstrate a legitimate interest in the prevention, detection or investigation of money laundering or terrorist financing.

The 2026 Amendments: Overhauling the Public Access Regime

The public access regime has been further overhauled by the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (the “2026 Regulations”).

A person seeking to inspect the Central Register must now demonstrate to the Registrar a legitimate interest in “the prevention and combating of money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing”.  Persons deemed to have a legitimate interest include:

• journalists and civil society organisations connected with the prevention and combating of money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing;
• persons likely to enter into a transaction with a relevant entity who wish to prevent any link with money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing; and
• entities subject to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing requirements in third countries, where they can demonstrate a need to access beneficial ownership information for customer due diligence purposes.

Applying for Access: Certification, Timelines and Repeat Inspections

The 2026 Regulations introduce a new process for inspecting beneficial ownership information on the Central Register:

• Where the Registrar is satisfied that the applicant has a legitimate interest, he/she must issue a certificate permitting inspection of the relevant information for a 3 year period from the date of issue (or until revoked, if earlier).
• If not satisfied, the Registrar must refuse to issue a certificate on one or more of six specified grounds and provide a written statement of reasons.  The applicant may appeal to the District Court.

From 10 November 2026, the Registrar will have 12 working days to respond to access requests, extendable to 43 working days where request volumes are high. Once a certificate has been issued, subsequent inspection requests must be responded to within 7 working days, and repeat inspections are permitted during the certificate’s validity without the Registrar needing to reconsider the applicant’s function or occupation.

Enhanced Protections for At-Risk Beneficial Owners

Additional restrictions apply under the 2026 Regulations where a person seeks to have access to, or to inspect, any information in the Central Register:

• relating to a beneficial owner who is a minor, or a person who lacks capacity or is otherwise legally incapable, or
• where such access or inspection would expose the beneficial owner to a disproportionate risk of fraud, kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, harassment, violence or intimidation.

In such cases, the applicant must provide a written summary of the grounds on which he/she considers disclosure to be in the public interest.  An Assistant Registrar will determine whether there are substantial grounds for that contention.  If the Assistant Registrar refuses access, the applicant has 10 working days in which to request that the Registrar review the decision.  The Registrar may direct that the decision be affirmed or else set aside and reconsidered by the Assistant Registrar.

Looking Ahead: The AMLR Framework

The beneficial ownership regime will see further changes in 2027 when the provisions of Chapter IV of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (“AMLR”) take effect.  The AMLR seeks to establish a more detailed and harmonised framework across the EU for identifying, documenting and reporting beneficial ownership.  

Some key changes will include:

• A prescriptive methodology for identifying beneficial owners, which will require ownership interests and control to be separately assessed as independent and parallel tests.
• An expanded and more detailed concept of ‘control’, requiring separate consideration of ownership and control pathways such as majority voting rights, rights to appoint or remove management, veto rights, decisions regarding profit distribution, contractual arrangements, family relationships and the use of formal or informal nominee arrangements. 
• Specific rules for multilayered corporate structures and indirect ownership calculations, including the introduction of a methodology for calculating indirect ownership across complex structures, involving the aggregation of interests held through different routes and an analysis of economic rights.
• Enhanced obligations to obtain, maintain and update beneficial ownership information and supporting documentation.
• The introduction of a mechanism which will enable the Commission to assess, by 10 July 2029, whether the 25% beneficial ownership threshold should be reduced to 15% for certain high-risk categories of legal entities, subject to the introduction of future implementing measures.

What Organisations Should Do Now

Organisations, particularly those carrying out customer due diligence and related checks, should make themselves aware of the new certification process introduced by the 2026 Regulations so as to avoid undue delays.

Organisations should also familiarise themselves with the requirements of Chapter IV of the AMLR, which will apply in Ireland from 10 July 2027, with a view to ensuring that their beneficial ownership arrangements are identified, documented and reported in line with the AMLR’s requirements from that date.

How can McCann FitzGerald LLP help?

For further information on any of the matters discussed in this briefing, please contact any of the key contacts below or your usual contact at McCann FitzGerald LLP.