Company Share Register

A company share register is an official record of who owns shares in a business, how many shares each person or organization holds, and what class of shares they own. It is the definitive record of your company's ownership structure.

Every corporation and most other entities with shareholders or partners are required to maintain a register like this. It is not necessarily a public document, but it must exist and be kept up to date. When it comes to corporate identity verification, this document is how we identify the beneficial owners of your business, meaning the real people who ultimately own or control it.

Under US federal regulations, financial institutions are required to identify and verify all individuals who own 25% or more of a legal entity. The share register is the primary way we establish who those people are.

Knowing who owns a business is a fundamental part of corporate onboarding. It is not enough to know that the business exists. We also need to understand who is behind it.

This is required by FinCEN's Beneficial Ownership rules, which form part of the Customer Due Diligence framework that all regulated financial institutions in the United States must follow. The rules are designed to prevent the use of corporate structures to obscure the true ownership of assets or accounts.

If your business has multiple shareholders, we will need to verify the identity of those who meet or exceed the 25% ownership threshold as part of the broader onboarding process.

The document you submit must clearly display all of the following:

Any of the following will be accepted, provided they include all of the required information listed above:

• Stock ledger or register of shareholders maintained by the company
• Cap table showing all shareholders and their ownership percentages
• Shareholder agreement detailing the ownership structure
• Stock certificate records evidencing share ownership

For many smaller businesses, the cap table is the most common format. This is often maintained in a spreadsheet or through a platform like Carta or Pulley. As long as it clearly shows the required information and is signed or certified by an authorized officer of the company, it will typically be accepted.

If your business has a complex ownership structure, including parent companies or trusts as shareholders, contact our onboarding support team before submitting. We can walk you through what we need to see and how to present the ownership chain clearly.