Today, Petr Jakubec and Vítězslav Hruška, as representatives of the APRSF, took part in discussion on the Bill on the Registration of Beneficial Owners. This happened at the invitation of the Senate Temporary Commission for draft audit reports.
The purpose of this law is to transpose the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive into Czech law. It aims at greater transparency and public availability of some data on the real owners of not only companies but also, for example, trust funds.
The main points of discussion were the method of determining the real owner of the corporation owned by the trust fund and the issue of enforcement of rights in connection with the veracity of the registered data. APRSF supported the opinion against unjustified or factually unnecessary individual exceptions to the general rules. At the same time, the Association agreed on the need to ensure effective control and correction of erroneous data entered in the register. Previous experience with the current records of fiduciary tasks points to possible functional defects of information systems and the possibility of mistakes on the part of their operators. However, it is precisely such shortcomings that can have a major impact on the rights and legally protected interests of the persons concerned.
We are pleased that our speeches and contributions to the discussion received a positive response and helped open another way to the active involvement of the Association in the legislative process in the field of trust funds in the Czech Republic.