Business Ownership Documents

​

Key Points

• Bridge is required to confirm of all individual ultimate beneficial owners who own 25% or more of the underlying entity.
• The identities provided to Bridge must either be attested to by a control person of the business or substantiated by an ownership document.

​

Definitions

• Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO): Individual or entity that has complete ownership and control over a business, institution, or legal entity
• Control Person (if different than the Ultimate Beneficial Owners): an individual with significant responsibility to control or direct business; typically an executive officer (CEO, CFO, COO, President) or Director

​

Ownership Structure Attestation

• It is sufficient for a control person of the entity to attest that the associated persons being provided to Bridge include all ultimate beneficial owners who own more than 25% of the entity.
• In the Bridge-hosted KYB flow, this attestation is a checkbox in the flow, and is sufficient if the person completing the flow is a control person of the underlying entity.
• For API-based KYB flows, this attestation can be provided as a timestamp through each associated person’s attested_ownership_structure_at field. It is sufficient for at least one associated person with has_controltrue (e.g., a control person) to attest to the ownership structure.

associated_persons: [{
  ...
  "first_name": "Sammy",
  "last_name": "Sample",
  "has_control": true, // If has_control isn't true, then the below attestation is not sufficient to satisfy Bridge's ownership requirements.
  "attested_ownership_structure_at": "2025-06-01T10:45:05-04:00", #
  ...
}]

​

Ownership Document Requirements

• Without an attestation from a control person, Bridge requires the ownership structure to be confirmed by a provided document.
• Self-generated documents or attestations confirming shareholders should be dated and signed by a verified control person (e.g. CEO), or alternatively, a lawyer or third party CPA
  • Detailed capitalization tables clearly produced by well-known equity management companies (e.g. Carta, AngelList, or Securitize) do not require a signature from a Lawyer or third party CPA
• Please ensure that 100% of ownership can be derived or clearly accounted for in the document
• If the entity is owned by another entity (or multiple entities), we will require similar documents verifying the subsidiaries’ shareholders
• Please ensure the document lists the name of the entity it pertains to
• Generally speaking, if the entity does not have individual beneficial shareholders, we will need to confirm the individuals who significantly control the entity instead, such as its directors and officers

​

Acceptable Ownership Documents By Entity Type

​

Other Forms of Business Ownership Documents

• Ownership Org Charts–visually detailing complex ownership structures along with the shareholding percentages of each unit
• Signed Ownership Attestation Letter–confirming ultimate individual beneficial owners and their ownership percentages, signed by a Lawyer or third party CPA
• Capitalization Table–listing the names of shareholders and their ownership percentages signed by a Lawyer or third party CPA
  • Detailed capitalization tables produced by well-known equity management companies such as Carta or Angellist do not require a signature from a Lawyer or third party CPA