Er zijn Europese plannen om de nationale handelsregisters met elkaar te verbinden. In het kader van de behandeling van het voorstel voor de 4e Europese antiwitwasrichtlijn komen daar plannen bij om de registers een rol te geven bij de witwasbestrijding, onder meer door het registreren van de uiteindelijk belanghebbende. Gelet op die ideeën verbaast het niet dat de Nederlandse regering de Kamer van Koophandel heeft uitgekozen voor het beheer van het overheidsregister van aandeelhouders.

De wens om de handelsregisters een extra rol te geven wordt geuit in de concept opinie van de Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs van het Europees Parlement naar aanleiding van het voorstel voor de 4e antiwitwasrichtlijn, zie de citaten hierna:

Firstly, the operations of existing business registers have to be improved. The identification of beneficial owner of the business or the business transaction is key in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. As proposed by the Commission, it is the responsibility of the company to know its customer and find out who the ultimate beneficiary is. Currently businesses lack ways and means to verify the beneficial owners. This leads to disproportionate burden and liability for companies. Therefore the operations of the existing business registers in Member States should be improved to include beneficial ownership information that would help both authorities and businesses to verify those persons that actually gain from the business transactions. The interconnectivity of registers is vital to efficiently use this information due to the cross-border scope of business and the interconnectivity of the internal market. Therefore registers should be interconnected as already set out in the Directive 2012/17/EU and should be accessible by the authorities and the responsible businesses.

Vervolgens leidt dit tot de volgende aanbeveling voor de tekst van de considerans:

(12a) The establishment of beneficial ownership registers by Member States would seriously boost the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, tax evasion, fraud and other  financial crimes. This could be achieved by improving the operations of the existing business registers in the Member States. The interconnectivity of registers is vital to make use of the information contained therein, due to the cross-border nature of business transactions. The interconnection of business registers across the Union is already set out in Directive 2012/17/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 amending Council Directive 89/666/EEC and Directives 2005/56/EC and 2009/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the interconnection of central, commercial and companies registers.

Er wordt het volgende tekstvoorstel voor de richtlijn gedaan:

Article 30a
1. For the purpose of establishing beneficial ownership, business registers in each Member State shall contain, but shall not be restricted to, information on beneficial ownership of corporate or legal entities established within their territory.
2. Registers referred to in paragraph 1 shall contain the information set out in Article 30(1).
3. The information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be accessible by competent authorities and by obliged entities in a timely manner.
4. The information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be maintained up to date.
5. Registers referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be interconnected and accessible by competent authorities and obliged entities from other Member States.