Recital 45

(45)Criminals can misuse legal entities at any point. However, certain phases in the lifecycle of legal entities are associated with higher risks, such as at the company formation stage, or when there are changes in the company structure, such as conversion, merger or division, which allow criminals to acquire control of the legal entity. The Union framework provides oversight by public authorities over those phases of a legal entity’s existence under Directive (EU) 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council ¹⁷ . In order to ensure that those public authorities can carry out their activities effectively and contribute to the prevention of the misuse of legal entities for criminal purposes, they should have access to the information contained in the interconnected central registers.