PRESS RELEASE

BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

in the context of the national policies regarding the fight against money laundering and combating terrorist financing

Transparency International Romania organized a round table on Wednesday, 20 July 2022, in Bucharest, and the topic debated was the beneficial ownership transparency in the context of the national policies regarding the fight against money laundering and combating terrorist financing. 

The event brought together representatives of relevant public institutions (National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering – ONPCSB; National Integrity Agency; Ministry of Finance; Anticorruption General Directorate; Secretariat-General of the Government; Authority for the Digitalization of Romania) and representatives of civil society, referring here to NGOs such as Romanian Academic Society; Institute for Public Policy; Association for Cooperation and Sustainable Development.

Among the themes debated were approached topics such as: implementation of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) recommendations in the context of the international political and economic situation; connecting the Register of Beneficial Owners with other platforms and the need of more transparency; best practices examples; strengths and weaknesses of the current approach regarding the transparency of beneficial owners in Romania.

Speakers of the event:

• Adrian Cucu, president of the National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering – ONPCSB;
• Adriana Luminița Popa, member of Board of Directors of Transparency International Romania, former president of ONPCSB;
• Florin Ionel Moise, president of National Integrity Agency;
• Victor Alistar, civil society representative in the Superior Council of Magistracy – CSM, member of Board of Directors of Transparency International Romania.

Among the recommendations resulting from the debates at the round table are:

• Finding solutions regarding the consolidation of the three Registers of Beneficial Owners that are in force in Romania, for an easier verification, consultation and use of the information provided about the beneficial owners.
• Improving the interoperability ways of databases and public registers from Romania, including here also the interoperability between the registers regarding beneficial owners and tax data, real estate data, shares held, wealth declarations of civil servants and politically exposed persons.
• Improving the cooperation between the public sector and the civil society. In principle, such collaboration is agreed by all parties involved, but an intensification of dialogue is needed to identify concrete forms of cooperation.

The round table took place Wednesday, 20 July 2022, was organized by Transparency International Romania and is one of the 15 events organized in as many European countries, within the international project Civil Society Advancing Beneficial Ownership Transparency (CSABOT) that implements the Preparatory Action – Capacity building, programmatic development and communication in the context of the fight against money laundering and financial crimes.

The main objective of the project is to build the capacity of civil society regarding its contribution in the fight against money laundering and combating terrorist financing. The project emphasizes the importance of promoting the information on the beneficial owners as a tool for the transparency of the corporate and financial and banking environment.

The CSABOT project is implemented by Transparency International Secretariat (TI-S), Justice Network (TJN), Transcrime – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Transcrime – UCSC) and Government Transparency Institute (GTI) and financed by the European Union through the European Commission. The opinions expressed during the event do not represent the official point of view of the European Commission.

More information about the events held in Romania is available on Transparency International Romania’s website: www.transparency.org.ro.

If you want to receive further information about the CSABOT project and international events, you can subscribe to the CSABOT project newsletter.