A transparency register answers one question: which natural persons ultimately stand behind a company? It records the beneficial owners, not the formal shareholders, which are often companies themselves. These registers are a core building block of international anti-money laundering standards set by the FATF.
Switzerland since October 2026
With the TJPG, Switzerland launched a central register on 1 October 2026. It is kept by the Federal Office of Justice, reports are filed via EasyGov, and the data is stored on a server in Switzerland. The register is not public: certain authorities and financial intermediaries and advisers acting under their anti-money laundering duties have access. A control unit within the Federal Department of Finance checks the entries.
Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein
Germany runs its Transparenzregister under its Money Laundering Act; since August 2021 it has been a full register, meaning companies must actively enter their beneficial owners. Austria keeps its register of beneficial owners under the WiEReG at the Ministry of Finance. Liechtenstein keeps its register of beneficial owners (VwbP). Structures spread across several of these countries face several registries, different forms and their own deadlines.
Public or not
EU law originally required publicly accessible registers. In November 2022 the Court of Justice of the European Union held general public access to be incompatible with the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection (joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20). Since then access in the EU has been tied to a legitimate interest. Switzerland designed its register as non-public from the outset. The new EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, the AMLR, harmonises access from 2027.
What a register entry does not do
An entry is a self-declaration by the company, even if it is checked. Banks, trustees and asset managers remain obliged to carry out their own due diligence: whoever runs a business relationship must establish and verify the beneficial owner themselves, for example with Form A or as part of KYB. The register is an additional source to compare against. Where it differs from one’s own findings, that is a reason to ask questions, not to adopt the entry silently.
Practical consequences for structures
For families with several companies, upkeep becomes continuous: every change in control — an estate division, a gift of shares, a new intermediate holding — can trigger a report. Those who have documented the structure properly once report changes as routine. Those who keep it in scattered files reconstruct it from scratch every time.