The Administration for Commercial Companies has presented a web tool called End User, which will enable the identification of natural persons who manage the corporate relationship between legal entities.

The digital platform implemented on the website of the General Directorate complies with one of the recommendations of the International Financial Action Task Force (GAFI) standard on transparency and corporate control.

The mechanism was presented on April 25, 2023, in one of the halls of the Government platform in Quito, by the head of the Supervisory Board of the company, Marco López, in an event attended by representatives of the entities that make up the Transparency Function and the Control social network, including the powers of the State Comptroller General, Carlos Riofrí.

In presenting this initiative, the leader pointed out that the function is to enable the identification of the end user in this type of transaction, which is a natural person.

He emphasized that it is an easily accessible and friendly tool and that it will enable “quick analysis of the capital profile of a customer, supplier or shareholder. The fight against money laundering is an obligation,” he stressed.

The end user refers to those natural persons who directly or indirectly participate in the entity, company or organization.

The supervisory authority believes that this portal will facilitate cooperation with other countries to exchange information in the fight against money laundering, and strengthen the transparency of financial and business transactions.

López pointed out that it will be useful for investigative actions of the State Prosecutor’s Office or others and that those who use it do not have to face filters, due to compliance with the Law on Transparency and Access to Information of Public Importance.

This is because during the meeting representatives of other subjects, including the Office of the Ombudsman, recommended the protection of personal data.

But López clarified that the law prohibits this and that there are corporate activities that are known in the public sphere.

Fabricio Echeverría, National Mayor for Planning and Strategic Management of the Supervisory Department, explained that the goal of the tool is to make corporate information transparent.

“The end user answers the question of public transparency, because there are many levels that sometimes do not know who the company’s users are, so it is important to know who these natural persons are behind that corporate tissue. , because those who commit crimes are natural persons, not legal persons,” explained Echeverría.

He cited the example that sometimes natural persons who have two, three or four companies participate in public procurement procedures in Sercop and “it is never known who the end user is”.

“Now they will have a list of end users, because there are companies that are founded with 800 dollars, that company becomes a shareholder of another company with the same 800 dollars and another company is created with the same amount, and there are three companies and , The end user is not known who is , so we will now try to promote that transparency with this tool”, added the mayor.

The platform is active on the website of the Main Office for Commercial Companies, on the portal Information – Corporate Sector – Company Search, where the End User link will be displayed on the left.