According to Section 3 of the German Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA, GwG), the “beneficial owner” is any natural person who owns or controls the contractual partner of a person who is an obliged person under anti-money laundering law or at whose instigation a transaction is carried out or a business relationship is established.
When establishing a business relationship, an obliged person under anti-money laundering law must check, among other things, whether there is a beneficial owner and if so, verify the identity. These checks can be very time-consuming for obliged persons who have customers that are businesses.