The persons registered as directors and shareholders (the persons appearing on the registers) may not in fact be the persons who ultimately control an IBC and who benefit from the successes of the IBC. They may be professional directors and nominee shareholders. Directors (and Professional directors) can be removed by shareholders who are controlled by ultimate beneficial owners.
Normally when professional directors and nominee shareholders are appointed, agreements called directorship service agreements and nominee shareholder agreements are signed by these persons and the ultimate beneficial owners. Because of these agreements the professional directors and nominee shareholders will not be able to appoint new directors or sell shares without the prior approval of the ultimate beneficial owners, and we would not process the changes without the written consent of the ultimate beneficial owners.
The Beneficial Ownership Act 2020 also requires that beneficial owners sign a declaration, in prescribed form, to confirm that they are the beneficial owner, and based on this, their names are entered into a Beneficial Owners register. The contents of the register are uploaded into a centralized government database (not public). The declarations and register can also be used as proof.