Personal Information about Beneficial Owners

Why do I need to supply personal information about key controllers and beneficial owners of my business?

1 August 2019

Transparent. Safe. One step ahead.

HSBC is committed to keeping you safe from criminals. To do this HSBC is asking all customers for more transparency around business ownership and key business controllers.

To help us, we ask that our customers show documentation to cover details criminals will use to put you at risk. This information will help us identify companies set up to enable money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. And the increased transparency also helps you.

As business becomes more globally connected, criminals gain more opportunities to misuse the financial system. Criminals can set up fake businesses and mask who is really behind the business and where their money comes from. They can then pass money from their criminal activity through the financial system without being noticed.

This means we need to ask more questions about who ultimately owns and controls your business and we may sometimes need to know about their personal wealth, if they have invested it in the business.

To find out more, watch the video.