🇵🇹 🇪🇺 Legislation27 Oct 2025
Portugal limits access to its beneficial owner register to a legitimate interest
Portugal's Decree-Law 115/2025 of 27 October 2025, in force from 1 November 2025, amends the Central Register of Beneficial Owners (RCBE) regime. Public access ends: only people and organisations that show a legitimate interest can see beneficial ownership information, and every access is logged for five years with the interest invoked. Undivided inheritances no longer need to register beneficial owners.
The decree-law amends the RCBE regime approved by Law 89/2017 and transposes article 74 of the EU's sixth anti-money laundering directive (2024/1640), following the EU Court of Justice's 2022 ruling.
What changed
- Information on the beneficial owners of companies and other entities is available online only to those who show a legitimate interest.
- Every access is logged for five years, including the legitimate interest relied on.
- Declarations can identify the legal representative of a minor or supported adult who files for them, without making the representative a beneficial owner.
- Undivided inheritances are excluded from the registration duty.
- A further order (portaria) will set out how access works and how users are identified.
Who is affected
Portuguese companies and other entities in the RCBE, their beneficial owners, and those who use the register.