The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the National Bank of Georgia, organised on May 4-5 an online training on” Transparency of Beneficial Ownership” for over 45 representatives of commercial banks and payment service providers.
 
The 2019 Georgian law on “Facilitating the Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing” established a new definition of BO which is now in compliance with FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and European standards. In 2021 the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) adopted the Guidance on Establishing of Beneficial Ownership to assist the supervised reporting entities in identifying and verifying ultimate beneficial owners (UBO) in accordance with the new definitions and regulations. 

In fact, the complexity of establishing beneficial ownership in Georgia was already highlighted in the MONEYVAL 5th Round Evaluation Report of 2020, according to which, despite NBG’s proactive approach, there was still a risk of misuse of legal persons, in particular through the use of “fictitious” companies. 

In this context, the project has continued its support to national authorities in implementing efficiently AML/CFT requirements, on this opportunity in relation to better understanding the international and domestic UBO requirements. This training followed the international conference on Beneficial Ownership Transparency which in June 2021 gathered representatives from over 15 countries to exchange best practice on the principles of BO and the establishment of BO Registries. 

In this latest training in Georgia, representatives of commercial banks and payment service providers learnt of the international and European BO standards, as well as on the recent and future developments on the subject matter mainly from the FATF and the EU. In addition to the private sector, the training was also attended by representatives of the Financial Monitoring Service (FMS – Georgian Financial Intelligence Unit). The NBG representative in the meeting from his part reviewed the national AML/CFT national requirements on beneficial owners. 

The training was marked by the active engagement of participants, and their willingness to learn from the Council of Europe experts on the misuse of trusts; indicators of concealed beneficial ownership; and mechanisms of obtaining updated Ultimate Beneficial Ownership information, amongst other relevant matters. In addition, the private sector representatives had the opportunity to discuss into smaller groups specific questions and practical matters on real cases on identification and verification of UBO.
 
The meeting also offered an opportunity to discuss amongst relevant stakeholders the importance of access to updated beneficial ownership information. In this regard, the benefits, and challenges in establishing beneficial ownership registries were thoroughly analysed based on European best practices and experiences. 

This training was part of a series of activities designed to support more effective and efficient compliance of Georgian financial institutions with international AML/CFT requirements.

The activity was organised in the framework of the project “Enhancing the systems of prevention and combating corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing in Georgia”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II.