In our blog of 8 December, we noted that the Luxembourg Ministry of Justice had issued a press release advising that access to Luxembourg’s Beneficial Ownership (BO) register had been restored for a number of professionals, following the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the BO registers decision, that open public access to the BO registers of EU member state companies is no longer permitted.

In a Circular LBR 22/01 issued on 19 December 2022, the Luxembourg Business Register (LBR) provided the procedure to be followed by professionals in order to have access to the register. The Circular notes that such access should be only for professionals who have obligations under the rules relating to money laundering and terrorist financing and to assist them in carrying out those obligations.

In order to obtain access, a professional will be required to identify itself as a relevant professional and to sign an agreement (comprising six pages) with the LBR which sets out the terms on which access will be given. This will involve the creation of an account with the LBR enabling the professional to be identified as such. It will only be possible to do this with the use of a so-called LuxTrust certificate issued for professional purposes.

Further developments are awaited in relation to the promised access to be given to representatives of the press who have a legitimate interest in being able to consult the register of beneficial owners as part of their journalistic research. Access for national journalists is expected to be managed by the Luxembourg Press Council within the framework of an agreement with the LBR.

An English version of the Circular can be found here and the identification form (in French) here and the form of agreement (in French) here.