Are you interested in renting for business purposes?
Are you interested in renting a safe for your business? If so, CitySafes requires additional information from you before entering into a contract. As a representative of a company, we are obligated under the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) act to ask you some additional questions. These questions help reduce the chances of doing business with criminal organizations that misuse our services for illegal activities. We ask these questions to better understand:
- The final stakeholder(s) of your business(UBO).
- The business activities of your company and how you will use the safe to support these activities.
Below, we tell you what these questions entail and how to answer them. If you have any further questions on these topics or how to answer them, please email us at info@citysafes.be.
Final stakeholder (UBO)
By providing a UBO statement, you provide us with information on individuals who hold 25% or more interest in your company. This interest can take the form of shares or voting rights to dismiss or appoint the management or supervisory body. Depending on your organizational structure, these may be different individuals.
What do you fill in as your organisation:
A sole proprietor? You are the sole stakeholder. Please fill in your personal details, sign the declaration, and return it to us.
An ordinary limited partnership, Genral Partnership of Cooperative Society is? There are multiple stakeholders involved. Please fill in the personal details of all individuals with an interest of 25% or more on the declaration. Once completed, have one of the partners or managing partners sign the declaration and return it to us.
Een Limited company, Public limited company or a Cooperative society is? Complete the personal details for all individuals with an interest of 25% or more in the declaration. Once completed, sign the declaration and return it to us. The signature of one beneficial owner is sufficient.
A association or foundation is? If your association or foundation has no beneficial owner(s) with an interest of 25% or more, but only directors, you can declare these directors as the beneficial owners. The signature of one of the directors is sufficient.
A government agency or regulated financial institution is? You do not need to declare the beneficial owner(s) as the organization is supervised by the government or Belgian regulators. Simply sign the declaration and return it to us.
Note:
The final stakeholder in your organization is never the name of the organization itself; rather, it is always the natural persons within the organization.
Determining the percentage interest.
We request that you indicate the percentage of direct and indirect interest in your company. Direct interest refers to a situation where a natural person holds shares in your company or has voting rights to appoint or dismiss its management or supervisory body. Indirect interest refers to a situation where a natural person, through another organization, has such an interest in your company. Below are a few examples:
| Example 1: Your organization has three stakeholders. Two ultimate stakeholders, who are natural persons, hold 40% of the shares. Person three, also a natural person, holds 20% of the shares. However, Person three is not a UBO because their percentage interest is below the 25% threshold. On the statement, you only need to fill in the details of Person one and Person two, as they both have a direct interest of more than 25%. |  |
| Example 2: If your organization is part of a holding company or foundation, and that holding company holds 100% equity in your organization, we are looking for the natural persons with interests in the top organization in the organizational tree. If your company is part of several holding companies or foundations, we will consider the highest organization. In this example, both stakeholders have an indirect interest of 50%. |  |
| Voorbeeld 3: Your company is equally owned by two foundations or holding companies, each holding 50% of the shares. Holding X also has two beneficial owners, each with a 50% stake in the holding company. As a result, both individuals have a 25% indirect interest in your company.In the case of Holding Y, person one holds 75% of the shares while person two holds 25%. Person one of Holding Y has a 37.5% indirect interest in your company (50% x 75% = 37.5%) and person two has a 12.5% indirect interest, which is below the 25% threshold. Therefore, you only need to report persons one and two of Holding X and person one of Holding Y on the statement. |  |
Business activities and purpose of the safe
In the “Statement of Activities,” you describe your company’s activities and how you will use the funds to support these activities. Some examples are provided below.
You have a notary’s office: We are a notary’s office specializing in preparing notarial deeds such as mortgage deeds and recording wills. If our clients wish, we keep a copy of the deed for them. These copies are kept safe in a vault at CitySafes.
You have a car dealership: We are a car dealership that buys and sells cars. To prevent theft of the cars in our possession, we store their papers in a safe at CitySafes.
You deal in valuable coins: We buy them from a network of coin dealers and sell them back to individuals. Due to a past burglary, we do not want to keep these coins on our premises. We have decided to store our stock of coins in a vault at CitySafes.
