“The digitalisation has increased the importance of business registries”
Dear Mr Riivari, thank you very much for giving us this interview and part of your time. Taking advantage of your stay in Madrid during the 22nd International Congress of the Association of European Business Registrars, we would like to know your vision of business registers and their role in the future.
You have been president of EBRA since 2019, you have been at the helm of the association for three years now. How did you become president and what were your main objectives?
I was a member of the Board of ECRF and participated the working group preparing the merger of EBR/ECRF in order to create EBRA. After the work was done I felt that I would be interested to give my contribution to getting EBRA up and running. The first years have been about that, but another big theme is to come up with a plan for the future of the EBR Platform.
During your presidency, the world was ravaged by the hardship caused by the SARS/COVID-19 pandemic. It has had a hard-to-describe impact on all spheres of life but, from the perspective of the Business Registers and the difficulty of serving in your role during the pandemic, what were your main concerns as President?
These years have indeed been a challenge to us all. For EBRA it was challenging since we rely on resources and tie given to us by Members and since (face-to-face) cooperation between people is the core of this kind of association. After the first shock we were able to pick up activities and as for the Board we’ve found that having online meetings is quite efficient way to work together. It is however great that we were finally able to meet in person in Madrid.
Coinciding with your arrival to the presidency in 2019, the European Commission launched a very ambitious strategic plan. One of the main strategic lines of the Commission has been the so-called digital revolution, with a desire to digitise society and commercial legal traffic. How do you think this digitization can affect a legal institution such as the commercial registers?
It is true that these years have brought about big changes for the business registries. It has been very useful for us as registries to have a forum like EBRA to learn and discuss these changes together. I think that digitalisation has increased the importance of business registries since we are providing the basic information that is required in various digital services.
Another major concern of the European legislator is to make further progress in the fight against money laundering and, as far as commercial companies are concerned, to prevent them from being used for money laundering or tax avoidance purposes. How do you consider that business registers can help in the fight against money laundering?
The measures aimed at fighting against money laundering and other forms financial crime are extensive and put more and more pressure on registries being accurate and up to date. The registries on Beneficial Owners is the most important ones and since many of us are in charge of them, we have put emphasis on working on these themes as well. The big challenge is that registries who have traditionally been mere registrars and now required to do more surveillance and to introduce stricter controls. This is a change of mindset for many of us.
The European Union wants to strengthen the so-called internal market, to facilitate as far as possible a strong economic development in the Union, but without losing sight of European values. As part of this ambition, the so-called data economy has emerged. How do you see this new economy affecting legal registers?
The data economy is a big trend in Europe and elsewhere. What makes it tricky is the fact it covers many types of data. The so-called PSI directive was created in order to release raw data like geospatial data and weather data for wider use in the society. Legal registries are a bit different in nature. We have since long time published company data for the benefit of the society as a whole. The ways to do this are changing and we should find a controlled way to do this paying attention to the financial aspects of this as well as to the protection of personal data.
“The measures aimed at fighting against money laundering and other forms financial crime are extensive and put more and more pressure on registries being accurate and up to date”
The interconnection of business registers is a reality and has been in place for a few years now. However, there is always room for improvement. How do you rate BRIS and how could the system be improved?
BRIS was in many ways inspired by the EBR platform but the approach chosen was different. The main aim of BRIS is to provide interconnection between registries but not to establish a single source for wider use of registry data. This has brought about limits to its functionalities. I don’t have a solution to this but perhaps it would make sense to develop BRIS to be a tool for interconnecting Member State authorities and find other solutions for more commercial use of company data.
In recent months, we are witnessing the horror of war on our borders. Within the sanctions packages, asset seizures are included as a sanction against the Russian oligarchy, what role are business registers in Europe playing in this area?
The war in Europe is indeed a horrific situation causing unbelievable suffering in Ukraine. The implementation of sanctions against Russia and Belarus is one important way to try to end the war. Business registers hold key information needed to implement the sanctions. It is our duty to make that information easily available for the authorities in charge of implementing the sanctions. The sanctioned persons do their best to avoid the impact of the sanctions and the success in preventing this requires seamless cooperation between different authorities. Spain sets a very good example in doing this and the rest of us have a lot to learn from that.
Ana del Valle
