A beneficial owner is a natural person who ultimately owns or controls your business. Identifying these individuals is a core requirement of our anti-money-laundering program and a condition of enabling trading on your account.
The ownership threshold
We identify any individual who owns or controls twenty-five percent or more of the entity, whether directly or through a chain of intermediate companies. We also identify anyone who exercises effective control by other means, such as a senior managing official, even if they hold no shares.
- Direct shareholders at or above the ownership threshold
- Indirect owners reached through holding companies or trusts
- Individuals with control through voting rights or agreements
- A senior managing official where no owner meets the threshold
Layered structures
When ownership runs through several entities, we trace each layer until we reach the natural persons at the top. For every entity in the chain we may ask for its own formation documents and ownership register so the path is fully evidenced.
Providing an accurate structure chart at the start saves time, because it lets us map the chain in one pass rather than requesting documents entity by entity.