The third of a series of six thematic webinar organised by the NTA, in the context of its institutional role and the initiatives it undertakes to raise awareness and inform all private sector entities on issues related to the prevention and fight against corruption, was successfully completed.
This third webinar was entitled “Beneficial Owners and Strengthening Corporate Transparency”. More than 300 professionals from the private and public sector had the opportunity to attend and be informed through the exchange of views of supervisory authorities’ executives, representatives of bank sector and Greek public sector entities, on the obligations arising from the current legal and institutional framework for beneficial owners in Greece, what is provided by international standards, the actions to be taken by the liable persons as well as the compliance obligations of companies that are subject to such obligations.
A short address was given by the NTA Governor, Mr. Angelos Binis, who spoke about the actions that the NTA has developed in order to enhance the awareness of private and public entities on issues of prevention and integrity policies’ development, as well as the importance of exchanging views between the academic community, representatives of bank sector and the Greek public sector, on the progress made in this policy area and the development of transparency control mechanisms and transparency policies.
Mr. Nikos Koulocheris, Secretary General of Economic Policy, in his presentation, referred, according to his competence, to the legal framework for beneficial owners in Greece and to the international standards’ provisions. He set out the critical provisions of Directives 2015/849 (EU) and 2018/843(EU) in combination with the considerations of the Directives and gave a brief report and presentation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations 24 and 25 and the immediate outcome 5. Subsequently, he explained how to incorporate the above into national law and in particular into article 20 of Law 4557/2018, making specific reference to the issues of registration, access and sanctions. In conclusion, he noted the updating of the above in line with developments at EU level and international standards.
Mr. Angelos Tzermiadianos, Head of Money Laundering Prevention Department, Bank of Greece, noted that "Criminals use a wide range of techniques in order to conceal the beneficial ownier of legal entities and gain access to the financial system". Mr. Tzermiadianos presented the due diligence measures applied by credit and financial institutions under the regulatory requirements of the Bank of Greece, in order to address the risk of their use for money laundering or terrorist financing purposes, as well as the supervisory actions to ensure compliance with these provisions. At the same time, as he said, "the challenges faced by the financial sector in terms of identifying the beneficial owner, as well as the opportunities that emerge from the launch of the central register of beneficial owners are highlighted".
Mr. George Hatzigiannakis, Secretary General of the Board of Directors of NGO ‘Transparency International Greece’, gave a brief presentation of the four main approaches to ensure the availability of beneficial owner information. He spoke about the effectiveness parameters and presented country examples. His presentation was based on the toolkit of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
Mr. Panagiotis Liargovas, Chairman of the BoD, Scientific Director of the Centre for Planning and Economic Research (KEPE), Professor, Department of Economics, University of Peloponnese, spoke about the importance of the introduction of the tool "Beneficial Owners and Enhancement of Corporate Transparency" in the development of the Greek economy. He stressed that "with this institutional tool, transparency is enhanced and corruption is combated. Enhancing transparency plays a crucial role in ensuring the efficient allocation of resources by allowing the market to assess and enforce discipline. Similarly, corruption discourages healthy entrepreneurship, acts as a disincentive for foreign productive investment and causes large-scale redistribution, which ultimately undermines the cohesion and morale of society. The institutional tool of 'true beneficiaries' can therefore make a significant contribution to raising GDP, improving living standards and ultimately to a higher level of social well-being for all.
Working cases were presented by Ms. Anastasia Sotiropoulou, Legal Counsel to the NTA Governor.
During the webinar, an electronic voting was conducted through the online application "mentimeter" with the results fueling an interesting exchange of views among the speakers.
The webinar was moderated by Ms. Aliki Konsta, Head of the Integrity Policies and Standards Development Unit, Directorate General for Integrity and Accountability, NTA.