The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it will be sharing data of companies’ beneficial ownership list with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Ammusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).
This is part of governments’s effort to beef up its capabilities against money laundering. The information sharing is covered by a data sharing agreement (DSA) between four agencies signed on Feb. 28, 2023.
“The DSA will allow the SEC to give timely access to accurate and adequate beneficial ownership informiation to competent authorities, in line with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” it said.
The FATF is an intergovernmental money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that sets international standards to prevent such illegal activities.
The SEC said the information its gathered play a “vital role in identifying the natural person/s maintaining ultimate effective control of the corporation.”
“Beneficial owners of a corporation are distinguished from legal owners, which are defined as natural or juridical person who, in accordance with the law, owns or has the controlling ownership interest over the corporation, or has the ability of taking relevant decisions within the corporation and imposing those resolutions, ” it said.
Source: MalayaBusinessInsight
