What is an Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)?

A UBO is a 'Ultimate Beneficial Owner', which means the ultimate beneficial owner of an organisation. The UBO is the person who ultimately owns or has a large amount of control of an organisation. This can be determined in two ways:

UBO based on ownership

A person qualifies as a UBO due to ownership when they have either:

  • Over 25% of the total ownership of an organisation.
  • Will receive over 25% of the assets of the organisation in the event the organisation winds down.


UBO based on Control

A person qualifies as a UBO due to control when they have any of the below criteria:

  • Having over 25% total control of an organisation.
  • Having over 25% of the voting rights in board meeting.
  • Having a decisive influence on the basis of the trust deed.
  • They are authorised to make decisions about the organisation.
  • If your organisation is a trust then the beneficiary, settlor, trustee and protector of the trust would also be UBOs.

A UBO is always a natural person. The ownership or control of an organisation can be direct or indirect, so ownership or control through another organisation also counts towards the total ownership or control.

Not possible to determine a UBO?
If you cannot determine a UBO on the basis of ownership or control, please designate an individual to be a pseudo UBO who has the most influence over the day to day activities of the organisation.


Good to know

  • Triodos bank is obliged to determine the UBOs of all organisations that bank with us.
  • In certain cases, Triodos bank may independently select a UBO based on the information we have available.

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