UBO verification

Why the register's shareholder list isn't the answer by itself

A company register typically shows who holds shares in that company directly. If the shareholder is a person, that can be the whole answer. If the shareholder is another company - a holding company, a foreign entity, a fund - the register has told you the wrong layer of the truth. UBO verification means continuing past that first shareholder, into whoever owns the shareholder, until the chain reaches an actual person or a documented reason it can't go further. See ownership resolution for how that walk works in general, and how Keizu determines a UBO for the specific algorithm.

What "verified" should mean

A UBO verification result is only as strong as what backs it. "Verified" should mean a specific, filed percentage from a specific register, traceable back to that source - not an inference, and not a number rounded up from an estimate. Where a register only offers an unquantified signal (a consolidation relationship, a sole-shareholder flag with no percentage), an honest result says so as an upper bound, rather than presenting it with the same confidence as a filed figure.

A point-in-time check, not a standing guarantee

UBO verification answers "who owns this, right now." It doesn't answer whether that stays true next month - that's a different, ongoing question, covered by UBO monitoring.

The threshold that decides who counts

Not every shareholder is a beneficial owner in the regulatory sense - there's a threshold. Under the EU's AMLR, the general test is 25% or more of ownership or control. See the 25% UBO threshold, explained for exactly how that test works and when a lower threshold applies.