Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) Register

The Register on Ultimate Beneficial Owner shall be established in Albania not later than 31.01.2021. The UBO Register shall be maintained by the National Business Center.      

In the meantime, all the existing companies and other legal entities obliged to register with the UBO register are required to identify and collect by the respective natural person(s) owning 25% and over, who ultimately control the entity, the required UBO data and information. The collected data will be used by the existing entities during the registration process in the UBO Register. The deadline to register such data is 2 April 2021.          

The legal entities obliged to register with the UBO Register

The legal entities that are obliged to register and must comply with the legal requirements related to UBO register are the following:

• LLC, JSC, limited partnerships, general partnerships, cooperation, cooperative and any other legal entity obliged to be registered according to the companies law in Albania;
• Associations, foundations and centres/clubs obliged to be registered according to the non for profit organizations law

An exemption from the obligation to register in the UBO register exists for the following entities:  

• the political parties;
• state owned institutions; and
• religious communities.   

All the existing companies and other legal entities obliged to register, within the end of this year, must collect and have in place the required data and information related to the respective natural person(s) owning 25% and over, who ultimately exercise control in the entity.

Afterwards and not later than 60 calendar days (i.e. 2 April 2021) that the UBO Register shall be operational, the legal entities are required to register the required data and information with the UBO Register. Failure to register the respective data within the above-mentioned deadline by the existing companies or the other legal entities imply sanctions in a monetary fine or even suspension of the activity by National Business Center.

The rules and procedures related to the UBO register will be approved by the government.

Public data and information

The data and information publically available and accessible online include:

• full name;
• month and year of birth;
• nationality;
• country of residence; and
• nature and ownership percentage.  

The other data and information that will not be publicly available include:  

The following information that contain the UBO Register shall not be publically available.

• date of birth;

• personal identification number;
• residential address;
• passport information (i.e. issuance and expiration date, number) for foreign citizens or travel document information for refugees;

Population of the UBO register

The UBO register shall be maintained by National Business Center.

The main identification data (entity’s name and registration number) of the existing companies and the other legal entities shall be automatically transferred from the Commercial Register and the Register of the Non-for profit organizations to the UBO register.

The rules and procedures related to the transferring process are to be clarified after approval of a regulation by the government. However, the transferring process shall be completed before functioning of the UBO Register.