Investment Limited Partnerships (Amendment) Act 2020
|
Amendment of Act of 1994 - new sections 27A to 27C relating to beneficial ownership disclosure | ||
|
27. The Act of 1994 is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 27: | ||
“Requirement to hold information on beneficial ownership of partnership | ||
27A. (1) A general partner of an investment limited partnership shall take all reasonable steps to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information in respect of the investment limited partnership’s beneficial owners, that is to say— | ||
(a) the name, date of birth, nationality, and residential address of each beneficial owner of it, | ||
(b) a statement of the nature and extent of the interest held, or the nature and extent of control exercised, by each such beneficial owner, and | ||
(c) the PPS number of each such beneficial owner to whom such a number has been issued, | ||
and any PPS number so obtained shall not be disclosed by the investment limited partnership for any purpose of this section or of any of section 27B, 27C, 28, 28A, 28B, 28C or 46. | ||
(2) The general partner shall enter the information referred to in subsection (1)(a) and (b) in the investment limited partnership’s beneficial ownership register, and the following information shall also be entered by the general partner in that register: | ||
(a) the date on which the name of each individual was entered into the register as a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership; | ||
(b) the date on which each individual who has ceased to be a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership ceased to be such an owner. | ||
(3) If, either— | ||
(a) after exhausting all possible means, and provided there are no grounds for suspicion by the general partner, no individual is identified as a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership, or | ||
(b) there is any doubt that any individual so identified is a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership, | ||
there shall be entered, in the investment limited partnership’s beneficial ownership register as its beneficial owners (stating the nature and extent of the control exercised by them), the names of the one or more individuals who hold the position of general partner or partners of the investment limited partnership or, in the case of a general partner that is a body corporate, the one or more individuals who are the senior managing officials of the general partner (including, in any of the foregoing cases, their date of birth, nationality and residential addresses) and— | ||
(i) the requirement of subsection (1) with regard to not disclosing a PPS number shall apply in the case of this subsection as that requirement applies in the case of subsection (1), | ||
(ii) subsection (2) shall apply in the case of this subsection as it applies in the case of subsection (1), and | ||
(iii) references in any subsequent section of this Act to the particulars referred to in subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this section shall be deemed to include, where the context admits, references to the particulars referred to in this subsection. | ||
(4) In a case falling within subsection (3)(a) or (b), the general partner shall keep records of the actions taken in order to identify the beneficial ownership of the investment limited partnership. | ||
(5) A general partner of an investment limited partnership shall provide any member of the Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners, a competent authority or the Criminal Assets Bureau with timely access, on request, to the investment limited partnership’s beneficial ownership register. | ||
(6) Each of the following: | ||
(a) the Garda Síochána; | ||
(b) the Revenue Commissioners; | ||
(c) a competent authority; | ||
(d) the Criminal Assets Bureau, | ||
may disclose the information in a beneficial ownership register to any corresponding competent authority of another Member State (a ‘corresponding authority’); in the event of there being a request made of a body or other person referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (d) by a corresponding authority for disclosure of such information, the request shall be complied with in a timely manner. | ||
(7) Where a general partner of an investment limited partnership enters into an occasional transaction with a designated person or forms a business relationship with a designated person, the general partner shall— | ||
(a) inform the designated person in writing that it is acting as a general partner of an investment limited partnership, | ||
(b) provide information on the investment limited partnership’s beneficial ownership to the designated person when the designated person is taking customer due diligence measures in accordance with Part 4 of the Act of 2010, | ||
(c) on request from the designated person, provide the designated person without delay with information identifying all the beneficial owners of the investment limited partnership, and | ||
(d) notify the designated person of any change to the investment limited partnership’s beneficial ownership register that occurs which is relevant to the occasional transaction or that occurs during the course of the business relationship formed, and the date on which it occurred within 14 days from the date on which the general partner or, if more than one, any one of the general partners of the investment limited partnership, became aware of the change. | ||
(8) For the purposes of subsection (7) ‘occasional transaction’ means a transaction in relation to which the designated person is required to apply customer due diligence measures under Part 4 of the Act of 2010. | ||
(9) A general partner that fails to comply with subsection (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) or (7) shall be guilty of an offence. | ||
Duty to give particular notice to individuals believed to be beneficial owners of investment limited partnership | ||
27B. (1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 27A(1), a general partner of an investment limited partnership shall give to any individual whom it has reasonable cause to believe to be a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership the notice specified in subsection (2), but this is subject to subsection (5). | ||
(2) The notice referred to in subsection (1) is a notice, addressed to the individual concerned, that requires the addressee— | ||
(a) to state whether or not he or she is a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership, and | ||
(b) if so, to confirm or correct any particulars of his or hers that are included in the notice, and supply any that are missing, | ||
and such a notice is referred to subsequently in this section as a notice under this section. | ||
(3) A notice under this section shall— | ||
(a) state that it is given under ‘section 27B of the Investment Limited Partnerships Act 1994’, and | ||
(b) as respects each of the particulars referred to in section 27A(1)(a), (b) and (c) — | ||
(i) set out that which— | ||
(I) to the knowledge of the general partner is, or | ||
(II) with reasonable cause is believed by it to be, | ||
the relevant particular, or | ||
(ii) in the absence of such knowledge or belief (on its part as respects a relevant particular) indicate, by leaving a space in the appropriate place, that that particular is not given in the notice. | ||
(4) A notice under this section shall also state that the addressee is to comply with the notice by no later than the end of the period of one month beginning with the date of the notice. | ||
(5) A general partner is not required to give a notice under this section if— | ||
(a) the general partner has already been informed of the status of the individual referred to in subsection (1) as a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership, and been supplied with all the particulars referred to in section 27A(1)(a), (b) and (c), and | ||
(b) the information and particulars were provided either by that individual or with his or her knowledge. | ||
(6) A general partner that fails to comply with subsection (1) or any other provision of this section shall be guilty of an offence. | ||
Other particular steps that may be taken to establish identity of beneficial owners | ||
27C. (1) This section— | ||
(a) is without prejudice to the generality of section 27A(1), and | ||
(b) does not derogate from the duty, where it arises, under section 27B. | ||
(2) A general partner of an investment limited partnership may give to any person (whether an individual or not) the notice specified in subsection (3) if it has reasonable cause to believe that the person has the knowledge referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of that subsection. | ||
(3) The notice referred to in subsection (2) is a notice, addressed to the person referred to in that subsection, that requires the addressee— | ||
(a) to state whether or not the addressee knows the identity of— | ||
(i) any individual who is a beneficial owner of the investment limited partnership, or | ||
(ii) any person (whether an individual or not) likely to have that knowledge, | ||
and | ||
(b) if so, to supply any particulars of any such person that are within the addressee’s knowledge, and state whether or not the particulars are being supplied with the knowledge of each of the persons concerned, | ||
and such a notice is referred to subsequently in this section as a notice under this section. | ||
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) — | ||
(a) a reference to knowing the identity of a person includes a reference to knowing information from which that person can be identified, and | ||
(b) a reference in paragraph (b) of it to particulars is a reference— | ||
(i) in the case of the individual referred to in paragraph (a)(i) of it — to the particulars referred to in section 27A(1)(a) and (b), and | ||
(ii) in the case of the person referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) of it — to any particulars that will allow the person to be contacted by the general partner. | ||
(5) A notice under this section shall state— | ||
(a) that it is given under ‘section 27C of the Investment Limited Partnerships Act 1994 ’, and | ||
(b) that the addressee is to comply with the notice by no later than the end of the period of one month beginning with the date of the notice. | ||
(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring a person to whom a notice under it is given to disclose any information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.”. |