---
title: Beneficial Owner (BO)
description: A beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls a company, other legal entity, or legal arrangement, or on whose behalf a transaction or business relationship is ultimately carried out. The concept focuses on the ultimate ownership or control, not only on the formally registered legal owner.
---

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# Beneficial Owner (BO)

A **Beneficial Owner (BO)** is the **natural person** who ultimately owns or controls a company, other legal entity, or legal arrangement, or on whose behalf a transaction is ultimately conducted. The concept focuses on the ultimate human owner or controller, not only on the formally registered legal owner.

#### EU / Germany

Under German anti-money-laundering law, a beneficial owner is generally the **natural person** who ultimately owns or controls the entity. This usually includes a natural person who **directly or indirectly holds more than 25% of the capital shares**, **controls more than 25% of the voting rights**, or exercises control in a comparable way. If no such person can be identified, the **legal representative, managing shareholder, or partner** may be treated as the substitute beneficial owner.

#### United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the closely related official concept is the **Person with Significant Control (PSC)**. A person is a PSC if they **directly or indirectly hold more than 25% of the shares**, **more than 25% of the voting rights**, have the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board, or otherwise exercise significant influence or control. The UK register also allows certain **Relevant Legal Entities (RLEs)** to be registrable under the PSC regime. Therefore, the UK PSC disclosure framework is not fully identical to the stricter BO definition, which ultimately always refers to a **natural person**.

#### International context

Across jurisdictions, the core purpose of beneficial ownership rules is to identify the person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity or arrangement. However, the exact thresholds, terminology, and disclosure rules differ by country.

#### How North Data presents BO-related information

In some cases, the **“BO”** label in North Data may be broader than the strict legal definition of a beneficial owner. Depending on the country and source, North Data may display the following types of information:

1. **Actual beneficial owner or transparency-register-type data**, where available.  
   Example: In some cases, such as data from Luxembourg, a **natural person** is shown as the BO. This most closely reflects the classic legal BO concept.  
   [https://www.northdata.com/?id=6130280367652864](https://www.northdata.com/?id=6130280367652864)
2. **UK PSC- or RLE-related control information.**  
   In the United Kingdom, the official PSC framework may include not only a natural person but also a **Relevant Legal Entity (RLE)**. As a result, a **company** may appear in North Data in a BO- or control-related context.  
   [https://www.northdata.com/?id=6468516442800128](https://www.northdata.com/?id=6468516442800128)
3. **Reportable voting rights or other control-related information** used as a product representation of ownership or control.  
   In some cases, North Data may also display **voting-rights-based or comparable control information**, even where this is not BO data in the strict legal sense.

For this reason, the **“BO”** label in North Data is not always fully identical to the narrow legal definition of beneficial owner.

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