Parliament approved in second reading the draft law amending the Law on State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, which provides for the annulment of offshore secrecy. Thus the list of the owners of companies with founders in jurisdictions that do not ensure transparency will be published.

According to the legislative initiative, the Public Services Agency will ensure public access to the information from the State Register on the actual beneficiaries in the existing resources and platforms for publishing open data about companies. Thus, the list of beneficial owners of all companies with founders in jurisdictions that do not ensure transparency will be published.

”There are registered a little over 500 companies in Moldova that will be affected by this provision, respectively the workload for state institutions, for the Public Services Agency, first of all, will not be too high (…). Other countries have understood these risks for more than ten years and are taking action, even if the resistance is high. Recently, even the USA banned offshoring, forcing companies to publicly disclose their actual beneficiaries,” the document reads.

The list of beneficial owners will be accessible on all existing platforms for publishing open data about companies. The new provisions would help ensure the economic stability of the state, prevent corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering. The legislative initiative was supported by 74 parliamentarians.