In some cases, Payhawk may request additional documentation or details to verify company structure, ownership, or compliance with local regulations. This could happen if the initial information provided is incomplete or if further verification is required.
Example 1
A company registered in the UK is owned by a management company based in Gibraltar. As the Gibraltar company registry is private, the applicant must provide the ownership structure of the management company. In the Gibraltar company, there are 3 individual shareholders with more than 25% each. The Compliance team will need to do the verification of the 3 shareholders, no matter their nationality.
Example 2
A company registered in Germany has a US entity as a shareholder, holding more than 40% of its shares. Even if the US company is not using Payhawk, the compliance team will still need access to a company document specifying the end-owners or control persons (depending on the legal entity type this might be a recent tax return, or a list of shareholders, etc).
Example 3
A company registered in Spain has several parent companies, some in the EU and some outside of it. Since some company registers (both in and outside the EU) don’t show corporate shareholders publicly, the full ownership chain cannot be traced. Therefore, Payhawk’s compliance team will need a structure chart showing all parent companies. For those outside the EU, supporting documents, like a company register extract, will be required.
Example 4
A company registered in France has a parent company in the Netherlands. In the Dutch parent company, three individuals hold 33% of the shares each. In such cases, the Compliance team will request that a UBO register extract displaying the shareholders, as well as personal details and ID documents for the 3 end-owners of the French company be provided.
Example 5
A Swedish company that is publicly listed has no majority shareholders with more than 25% of the capital. The Compliance team will request documents evidencing the market listing, as well as identification details and ID documents on behalf of the managing directors of the company who will be considered control persons.
Example 6
A Dutch company has a corporate manager, that is, another company is appointed as a company director. In such cases, the individuals appointed as directors of the managing company will be considered company directors of the Dutch company. Hence, these individuals will need to be ID verified and thus their ID documents will be requested by the Compliance team.