Beneficial-ownership discrepancy reporting: your duty and how to do it

Every designated person in Ireland checks the Register of Beneficial Ownership - or should. Far fewer firms have internalised the second half of the duty: when what you find in your own customer due diligence does not match what the register says, you must report the discrepancy. It is not optional, it is not new, and it is one of the easiest obligations for an inspector to test, because the evidence either exists on your file or it does not.

This post covers where the duty comes from, what counts as a discrepancy, how to make the report, and how the regime evolves under the EU's new AML package.

Where does the duty come from?

Since April 2021, Irish designated persons have been required to obtain an extract from the RBO before entering a new business relationship with a relevant entity, and to report discrepancies between the register and the beneficial-ownership information they establish themselves. The discrepancy-reporting obligation sits in Regulation 20(3)(b) of S.I. No. 110 of 2019. The register itself lives at rbo.gov.ie.

The mechanics of access matter. Following the Court of Justice ruling on public access, the RBO operates tiered access: Tier 1 for competent authorities with full access, and Tier 2 restricted access for designated persons. Your firm registers for designated-person access using the BEN3A1 form, and each extract costs a flat 2.50 euro. There is no API - this is a portal-and-evidence workflow, so build it into your onboarding sequence deliberately.

And remember Ireland has three beneficial-ownership registers, not one: the RBO for companies and industrial and provident societies, CRBOT for trusts (operated through Revenue - see revenue.ie), and the Central Bank of Ireland's register for ICAVs, unit trusts and credit unions. Your duty attaches to the register relevant to the client in front of you.

What counts as a discrepancy?

A discrepancy is a mismatch between the register and what your own CDD establishes. The test for who should be on the register is ownership or control at more than 25 per cent - and under the AMLR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, the EU-wide harmonised test from 10 July 2027 is a 25 per cent or more ownership interest, direct or indirect. Typical mismatches, all hypothetical:

• Different people. Your structure analysis identifies a beneficial owner the register does not name at all - often someone holding indirectly through a parent entity the filing ignored.
• Stale entries. The register still shows a former owner who sold out, or omits someone who bought in.
• Wrong details or percentages. The right person, but with materially incorrect information recorded.
• Nobody registered. The entity has no filing, or falls back on naming senior managers when your analysis finds real owners above the threshold.

What a discrepancy is not: a client whose story you have not finished checking. Complete your own beneficial-ownership work first - map the chain to natural persons, evidence each link - then compare. The comparison is the moment of truth, and it belongs on the file whichever way it goes.

How do you actually report - and what happens to the client?

When you find a genuine discrepancy, the sequence is:

1. Check your own work first. Confirm the mismatch is real, not an error in your analysis or an out-of-date document from the client.
2. Report it to the Registrar through the RBO's process for discrepancy notices. Record what you reported and when.
3. Do not simply tell the client to fix their filing and move on. Prompting the client to correct the register is often appropriate - but it does not substitute for your report.
4. Reassess the relationship. Ask why the register was wrong. An administrative slip by a small family company is one thing; a structure that appears designed to keep a name off the register is a risk indicator that may point to enhanced due diligence - or, where suspicion arises, a Suspicious Transaction Report to FIU Ireland and Revenue through the usual dual-reporting route.
5. Record the decision. The file should show the comparison, the report, your risk conclusion and who made it.

How does the EU package change this?

The direction is more scrutiny of registers, not less. Under AMLD6 - Directive (EU) 2024/1640 - member-state registers gain strengthened verification powers for registrars and are being connected EU-wide through the BORIS interconnection system. Discrepancy reporting by obliged entities is the feedback loop that makes register data trustworthy, which is why supervisors treat it seriously.

Two AMLR points to build into your procedures now. First, the harmonised 25 per cent threshold applies from 10 July 2027. Second, the threshold may not rest there: following a review, the European Commission may set a lower threshold - 15 per cent or lower - for high-risk sectors by delegated act. If your client-analysis tooling hard-codes 25 per cent, make sure it is a setting, not an assumption.

What to do now

• Confirm your firm actually has RBO designated-person access via BEN3A1 - not a colleague's personal login from 2021.
• Make "extract before the relationship begins" a hard gate in onboarding, with the 2.50 euro extract stored on the file.
• Add a mandatory comparison step: your beneficial-ownership findings versus the extract, recorded every time, including "no discrepancy".
• Write a short discrepancy procedure covering verification, the report to the Registrar, client handling and risk reassessment.
• Check which register applies to each entity type you serve - RBO, CRBOT or the Central Bank register.
• Sample five recent corporate files: is the extract there, dated before the relationship, with a recorded comparison?

Where CompliDesk fits

CompliDesk Ireland builds the RBO workflow into onboarding - extract prompt, stored evidence, recorded comparison and a discrepancy log - so the duty is met by default rather than by memory. For how beneficial ownership fits the wider July 2027 rulebook, see the AMLR explainer.