Recital 42

(42) The integrity of business transactions is critical to the proper functioning of the internal market and of the Union’s financial system. To that end, it is important that persons who wish to do business with legal entities or legal arrangements in the Union are able to access information on the beneficial owners of those entities or arrangements to verify that their potential business counterparts are not involved in money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing. There is widespread evidence that criminals hide their identity behind corporate structures, and enabling those who could enter into transactions with a legal entity or legal arrangement to become aware of the identity of the beneficial owners contributes to combating the misuse of legal entities or legal arrangements for criminal purposes. A transaction is not limited to trading activities or the provision or buying of products or services, but might also include, situations where a person is likely to invest funds as defined in Article 4, point (25), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16) or crypto-assets in the legal entity or legal arrangement, or to acquire the legal entity. Therefore, the requirement of legitimate interest to access beneficial ownership information should not be considered to be met only by persons carrying out economic or commercial activities.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.