Armenia

Council of Europe Office in Yerevan

To prevent situations where the real owner of a company is hidden behind shell structures and paperwork, authorities need to see who truly stands behind a company benefiting from a business—a concept known as beneficial ownership (BO).

The process began with the team of experts conducting a thorough assessment of Armenia’s national registration system, measuring it against Council of Europe requirements and European Union recommendations. The assessment examined key components of the system:

• the scope and triggers for BO registration
• legal definitions
• data requirements
• updating and retention mechanisms
• access provisions
• verification procedures
• as well as sanctions and enforcement practices.

In this context a comprehensive support has been provided to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the State Register of Legal Entities, aimed at strengthening Armenia’s beneficial ownership transparency framework through a combination of legal assessment, practical guidance development, and targeted capacity-building activity.

To ensure these findings translate into daily habits, the project supported the development of a practical guideline on BO verification.

The next step was empowering the people who will actually use the guideline. The two-day training in Tsaghkadzor brought public registry officials face-to-face with international experts to turn anti-corruption theory into practical defense and to strengthen the practical implementation of BO transparency standards.

The workshop provided insights on international practices in BO identification and verification, including registry duties, verification procedures for legal persons and arrangements, types of documentation reviewed by competent authorities, and administrative approaches in cases lacking supporting evidence.

The training also covered  how to spot indicators of concealed ownership, handling of non-transparent structures, and ensuring reliable discrepancy reporting, supported by comparative examples and practical insights.

“Fighting corruption is a continuous commitment to staying one step ahead of those who wish to abuse the system”, -highlighted one of the Head of the State Register.

To ensure the ongoing progress, the project will continue to provide targeted, practical support to Armenia's national stakeholders in building a more transparent, fair, and accountable economy—one where public funds serve the public good, and corporate accountability is the default rule.

This event is part of the European Union and the Council of Europe joint programme “Partnership for Good Governance”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in the framework of the Project on “Enhancing national capacities for effective prevention and fight against economic crime in Armenia”.