公司之透明、信賴與問責－－以實質受益人規範為核心

Transparency, Trust, and Accountability: Regulating Beneficial Owners

我國公司法修正中較具爭議性的議題是，應否增訂實質受益人條款，要求公司備置實質受益人名簿，並向主管機關申報。今（2018）年亞洲洗錢防制組織（APG）將來台評鑑，其重點為「主管機關能否及時取得充足、正確與最新的實質受益人資訊」。我國至今尚未建立實質受益人資訊系統，若屆時評鑑未過，我國將列名洗錢高風險國家，任何資金進出都要受嚴格審查，將導致國際貿易的成本大幅增加。實質受益人名簿之備置與申報，不僅是為了國際評鑑與洗錢防制，更有助於公司治理以及問責機制之建立，對於健全商業環境，保障投資人、債權人與消費者皆有其重要性。隨著各國對於法人透明度規範的重視，我國若不能跟隨世界潮流，進一步完善我國實質受益人法制，未來，在我國設立之公司將因欠缺透明度而在國際貿易中喪失競爭力，外國人也將不願到我國設立公司，嚴重影響我國的商業活動與投資。本文從國際規範與比較法觀察切入，分析現今規範趨勢，並討論我國現行法之不足，進而提出法規革新建議。

Under the pressure of 2018 mutual evaluation by APG (The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering), there is huge debate going on in Taiwan regarding whether the new Taiwan Company Act shall require the company keep the register of its beneficial owner and file with the central register. Transparency of legal persons and beneficial ownership is essential not only for anti-money laundry and compacting terrorist financing, but also for a better corporate governance. This paper reviews the trend for regulating beneficial ownership by introducing the FATF recommendations, the Fourth EU AML Directive, and the legislative development in UK, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong and the U.S., and proposes amendments to the Taiwan Company Act that aims to enhance the transparency of legal person while lower the compliance cost for market participants.