In general, a beneficiary is a natural person who gains profits or other advantages from something. In financial world, a beneficiary refers to someone who is qualified to receive distributions from a will, life insurance or a trust. In business world, it refers to a beneficial owner who ultimately owns and controls a business and/or another natural person on whose behalf a certain transaction is being conducted. Ultimate beneficiary is a person who exercises an ultimate effective control over a legal entity or an arrangement. Terms ultimately owns or controls as well as ultimate effective control are useful in situations when ownership of the company is exercised via chain of ownership and does not clearly shows the direct and actual owner of the business.

Importance of indicating an ultimate beneficial owner of the account
Beneficial ownership currently is the main issue for anti-money laundering (AML) compliance professionals in banks. And there is a well-grounded reason why. Developing extensive know your client (KYC) and other due diligence procedures before opening a bank account and throughout a cooperation with clients, banks have succeeded in countering terrorism, tax frauds and other crimes. Large-scale fraud is frequently related to inappropriate use of commercial structures. For example:

60% of inappropriately used business entities are involved in economic and financial crimes;
75% of known criminal organizations made use of business entities to mask their activities.
While banks risk losing their clients and profits after once again intensifying their KYC and other due diligence procedures, it is usually done to conform to rising AML requirements from the national governments and international institutions. Global AML standards are dictating that understanding ultimate beneficiaries of the bank accounts is an essential part of each financial institution's AML program, and can be reached via extensive know your client and other due diligence procedures.

Who exactly is considered an ultimate beneficiary of the bank account
The EU's Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (MLD4) substantially addresses ultimate beneficiaries. Under this directive, ultimate beneficial ownership is assumed in one of three cases:

A natural person holds an interest of 25% or more in the legal entity's capital;
A natural person can exercise 25% or more of the voting rights during the general shareholders meetings;
A natural person is a beneficiary of 25% or more of the entity's capital.
It is sometimes hard to determine the ultimate beneficiaries of a company. The above directive also dictates senior managing officials to be treated like beneficial owners in case the above criteria are not determined.

Ultimate beneficial owner and the nominees
In case a beneficial owner wants to keep his name from public records, the company can use a service of nominee shareholder. Nominee shareholder is generally an unrelated third party on which the shares of the legal entity are formally registered and are held on behalf of a beneficial owner. The ultimate beneficiary of the company can enjoy the actual ownership of the company, while the public ownership is kept in the name of the nominee shareholder. Generally, the true identity of the Ultimate beneficiary is known only to the law firm or the company formation service and the beneficiary itself.

Usually ultimate beneficiaries do not want to lose control over their companies, although they do not want to be publicly seen as the owners of the company either. Therefore it is crucial to set up appropriate documentation establishing the rights of the true ownership. These documents include trust declaration and nominee service agreement and are kept strictly confidential.

Confidus Solutions list of banks in Austria contains 10 banks.

You have several options for bank account opening in each one of the banks listed below.

Select a bank
BAWAG Bank
Erste Group Bank
UniCredit
Raiffeisen Bank
VTB Bank
Oberbank
Austrian Control Bank
Allianz Bank
Addiko Bank
DenizBank

Multinational companies and governments around the world are increasingly looking to Africa as a new business destination. Africa's economy has grown at a rate of around 5.3% per year over the last decade and six of the world's ten fastest growing economies are located here. These countries have a fast-growing middle class that contributes to rapid urbanization that is increasing faster than their cities' infrastructure can keep up. It is a common misconception that many economies in Africa are heavily dependent on energy production. In reality, the oil and gas sector accounted for only 11% of Nigeria's GDP in 2014, while the construction sector accounted for 20%.

When considering doing business in Africa, it is not a matter of choosing just one country or all 54; A regional approach makes more sense. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, refers to sub-Saharan countries such as Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Many companies already doing business in Africa are separating their businesses in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa due to the stark economic, linguistic and cultural differences between the two regions. Here are our top 5 African countries for doing business:

Mauritius
Mauritius is known for offering an extremely favorable business environment for investment and business growth. The process of incorporating a company and starting new business activities in Mauritius is believed to be straightforward and relatively easy. Mauritius' economy is mainly based on textiles, tourism, sugar and financial services, although recently other sectors such as renewable energy and information technology are expanding rapidly. The World Bank ranked Mauritius 49th in its Doing Business 2017 ranking, largely due to its pro-business approach to dealing with building permits, enforcing contracts and protecting minority investors. Another ranking of African countries places Mauritius first based on factors such as law and security, economy, human development and human rights.

Rwanda
Despite nearly a decade of Rwanda's civil war, the country's leaders and citizens alike have worked to achieve a healthy business climate and a strong overall economy. According to the World Bank, Rwanda is the second easiest place to do business in Africa and ranks 56th in the Doing Business ranking. This is because the procedures for registering a property, obtaining credit and trading across borders have been greatly simplified. Tourism is currently the fastest growing sector in Rwanda. According to our research, businesses can be incorporated and operating in as little as three days.

Botswana
Since gaining independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest per capita economic growth rates in the world. As the government works to diversify the country's profitable industries, the mining of diamonds and other precious metals is currently the main contributor to the country's economy. Recently, Botswana has managed to reduce the time it takes for various processes including import and export and business formation procedures. In addition, technological upgrades have reduced the average court length for commercial disputes to 625 days (from 987 days in 2008). Thanks to these improvements, Botswana ranks 71st in the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 ranking.

South Africa
South Africa's key industries are automobile manufacturing, tourism, mining and information and communication technologies. South Africa has managed to simplify its import and export procedures, resulting in less time and fewer documents being required. In addition, the South African authorities have simplified tax legislation, reducing the number of hours required to prepare tax reports. The World Bank ranked South Africa 74th for ease of doing business in 2017.

Kenya
Another country to keep an eye on is Kenya, which is currently making huge investments in sectors like telecom, transport and energy. With a tech-savvy workforce and high-speed internet, Kenya stands out as one of the top countries in Africa for tech startups, while its diversified economy, strong ownership rights, excellent tourism sector and improving infrastructure make it a great location for general start a new company. If you have further questions about company formation or banking in Africa. Please contact us now.