Beneficial owner (UBO)
A beneficial owner (UBO) is the real person who ultimately owns or controls a company — the human behind the entity, however many layers deep.
A beneficial owner — often the ultimate beneficial owner, or UBO — is the actual person who owns or controls a company, however it’s dressed up in holding companies and nominee structures. Typically it’s anyone holding above a set stake (often 25%) or otherwise able to control the business.
How it works
- During KYB, a platform traces ownership through each layer until it reaches real people, not other companies.
- Each identified owner is then verified individually via KYC.
- The threshold and definition come from regulation, so who counts as a UBO isn’t a judgement call.
The point of the exercise is to stop a chain of entities being used to obscure who’s really behind a business.
Why it matters
Layered ownership is exactly how illicit money hides — a clean-looking company at the top, a bad actor several tiers below. For a marketplace paying businesses, not knowing the human behind a seller is both a fraud risk and a regulatory one. Identifying the UBO is what makes the rest of onboarding meaningful.
How Fynex does it
Fynex, an FCA-authorised e-money institution, identifies beneficial owners as part of KYB and KYC inside your own onboarding flow — no redirect to a third party. See seller onboarding.