The goal is to update the Trade and Company Register (RCS) and the Beneficial Owners Register (RBE), the latter of which contains information on Luxembourg’s non-profit-organisations (ASBLs).
These registers are actively used. In 2021, 20 million documents were accessed and downloaded on the platform. On Monday, Minister of Justice Sam Tanson stated that the reform is meant to guarantee the quality and accuracy of the information. By 2023, the authorities also want to introduce sanctions for companies that do not comply with the new dispositions.
The two mandatory registers, i.e. the RCS and the RBE, play an important role for the economy on the national level. They contain all available data on entities registered in Luxembourg, e.g. their registered office or their bank accounts. But according to Tanson, the registers are also important on the international level.
The Minister explained that on the international level, Luxembourg faces “a variety of challenges in the form of evaluations”, whether it be through the OECD’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) or on a European level. Luxembourg must demonstrate full discretionary powers, since it faces “a big challenge as a financial centre, as a big economic centre in Europe”, with Tanson stressing that the Grand Duchy must give itself “all necessary means” to ensure that the information centralised in Luxembourg is “as accurate as possible”.
However, the LBR noticed that, compared with other countries, there is still room for improvement for Luxembourg’s registers.
LBR Director Yves Gonner explained that for them, it is important to offer the public registers containing “high quality information”. It is thus the LBR’s goal to achieve “the best quality possible” for their registers, Gonner stated, to ensure that when members of the public access information, they can be sure that it is up-to-date, factually correct, and was registered within the obligations stipulated by the law.
To this end, different stages have been laid down, which are meant to regulate subsequent courses of action. The first stage will focus on prevention. The goal is to precisely inform companies about the obligations they have when registering with the RCS. The second stage will focus on sanctions.
According to Gonner, sanctions will be “cumulative”, i.e. the LBR will start off by displaying information on their websites, if they determine that a certain number of files are non-compliant. In a second step, the LBR will publish warnings on their websites, pointing out that certain bits of information by a company are non-compliant.
Finally, if there is still no reaction after the warning, companies must expect fines of up to €3,500. If a company refuses to pay the fine, it may be removed from the register.
In parallel, the LBR also wants to carry out a thorough check of all data in its database to filter out potential discrepancies between different bits of information. In order to better fulfil the new tasks and carry out the reforms, the LBR is currently seeking to double its number of staff members.
The full report by RTL Télé (in Luxembourgish):
