Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) Information

The Ultimate Beneficial Owner, or UBO, is the real individual (or individuals) who ultimately owns or controls a company — even if the shares are technically held through one or more other companies. UBO checks exist to prevent structures from hiding who is actually behind a business.

UBO information typically becomes relevant when:

• A shareholder is itself a company rather than a person
• Ownership is spread across a holding structure or multiple corporate layers
• A bank is opening a corporate account and needs to complete its own compliance checks

Authorities and banks generally want to identify any individual who ultimately owns or controls a meaningful percentage of the company — commonly a threshold such as 25% or more, though the exact rule depends on the authority and the bank involved.