For the first time, some companies in the Ukrainian Companies Register (UCR) have been marked as having unclear ownership structures

15 companies have received a mark for having a non-transparent ownership structure in the Unified State Register. This follows changes made to the law on the registration of legal entities in September 2022. The law now includes a rule for businesses regulated by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). These companies — such as insurance firms, credit unions, pawnshops, financial companies, and private pension funds — must clearly show who owns and controls them.

To get a license from the NBU, a company must have a clear and open ownership structure. Problems can happen if:

• There is no clear major owner — no actual person in control.
• There is circular ownership — when one company owns part of another, and through a chain of owners, ends up owning itself.
• The company uses trust structures that break the legal rules.
• A new key owner appears without the NBU’s approval.
• The listed owners are only “on paper” and not the real ones.

If a company shows signs of non-transparent ownership, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) can fine the business, cancel its license, or even remove it from the State Register of Financial Institutions. For example, in 2023, the NBU took away the license of "Prosto Strakhuvannya" for this reason.

Opendatabot also adds a risk label to companies that show signs of non-transparency. However, not all companies that received this mark in the Register are financial companies or regulated by the NBU. The list even includes a housing co-op, a real estate rental business, and an agricultural company — types of businesses that, by law, don’t fall under the NBU’s rules and cannot be officially marked as non-transparent by the bank.

This shows that the Register is not being managed properly and that the Ministry of Justice is failing to monitor company registrations correctly.