By the A.M. Costa Rica staff


The Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector, known as UCCAEP, makes an urgent call to authorities, due to the requirement to register Shareholders' information to the Central Bank.

According to the Chamber, this obligation to make a registry of the companies shareholders before the Central Bank requires an extension. Due to the disappearance of the "Sociedad Anónima" corporation concept.

This new requirement, "implies fundamental and strategic changes for the companies" said the Board of Directors of UCCAEP in its statement.

Alvaro Sáenz, vice president of the Chamber said that one of the main inconveniences for entrepreneurs, is the fact that the Costa Rican Institute against Drugs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank just delivered the quality certifications required by the law, for the protection and restricted access to the information of the shareowners, in August. This left corporations very little time to begin the process of reporting the shareholders.

This delay caused an atmosphere of uncertainty in companies and for that reason, many entrepreneurs had not yet obtained the digital signature requirement to start the registration process.

According to the Chamber, there are a large number of representatives of companies that have not received their digital signature. There is limited capacity in the authorized banks to fulfill all the requests for digital signatures.

"Finally, at the end of August, the Costa Rican Institute against Drugs and the Ministry of Finance sent the Chamber the certifications required by law, meanwhile, many presidents of the companies did not process their digital signature due to uncertainty and legal uncertainty," said Sáenz. "Any person who has a public limited company, for the security of the relevant and sensitive information that was to be delivered, was not willing to send that information unless these certifications existed."

According to the records of the Chamber, the last institution to report this certification was the Ministry of Finance on August 22, the day before, on August 21, it was delivered by the Costa Rican Institute against Drugs, and the Central Bank delivered it on August 9th.

"The government institutions had to give an extension, because in March 2019 they admitted that they were not certified in compliance with the law," said Saenz. "The private sector should be given the same six months of preparation, because the last thing we want, and that is what the legislator foresaw in the law, is that sensitive and strategic information falls into the hands of unscrupulous people as unfortunately has happened in the past. ”

Another of the complaints made by the Chamber is the weak information given by the government authorities and other instances regarding the process of registering the shareholders.

Also, as Vice President Sáenz confirmed, the Chamber is in the process of analyzing the certifications to determine their quality and safety, since that is a requirement of law.


On September 2nd, A.M. Costa Rica published the article: How to register for Law 9416, By Garland Baker, to explain the complex process for registration of the shareholder's information at Central Bank.

The article can be found at A.M. Costa Rica archive link.*



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Should the Authorities give an extension to corporations to meet the requirements of delivering the names of their shareholders to the Central Bank? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com

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