UK confirms OTs have till 2023 to make BOs public

| 15/07/2020 | 21 Comments
Cayman News Service
Baroness Sugg with Premier Alden McLaughlin

(CNS): Before the end of this year Britain’s overseas territories minister will be issuing an order-in-council in line with the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act passed in the UK parliament in 2018, but the territories still have until 2023 to make their beneficial ownership registers public. In a written statement issued on Thursday, Baroness Sugg confirmed the date and said the territories had made “good progress” on transparency.

The minister said that Cayman and the other affected territories “have all demonstrated good progress and political leadership as part of the global effort to increase transparency in financial services and tackle illicit finance”, and that the end of 2023 was a reasonable deadline for the introduction of beneficial ownership registers.

“Meeting this date will be a considerable ask for many Overseas Territories,” she said, as she outlined the challenges and the help the UK was giving, and noting that it took the UK over three years to introduce its own register.

“The 2023 deadline also aligns with the Government’s international campaign to advance publicly accessible company beneficial ownership registers as a global norm,” she said.

Baroness Sugg also stated that the territories with financial centres were doing several things to share beneficial ownership information with UK law enforcement and other agencies.

“Last year’s statutory review found that these arrangements are working well and are providing UK law enforcement with rapid access to information used to support ongoing criminal investigations,” she said, as she welcomed other “constructive action” that the territories were taking.

The statement was welcomed here by the Ministry of Financial Services, which issued its own statement outlining what it is doing to remain compliant with global transparency requirements in financial services.

The ministry said the UK deadline for the registers aligns with the campaign to advance publicly accessible company beneficial ownership registers as a global norm.

“In accordance with our 9 October, 2019 statement that responded to the UK’s position on public registers in the OTs, Cayman has significantly strengthened and enhanced our beneficial ownership (BO) regime,” the ministry said, as it listed all of the action taken over the last year.

This included a more advanced technology platform for managing beneficial ownership information, the enhanced powers of the BO Competent Authority, quality assurance measures and broadening the definition and threshold for beneficial ownership reporting.

See the ministry’s full statement in the CNS Library.


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Category: Business, Financial Services

Comments (21)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The US taxes its citizens wherever they go so money laundering becomes the only concern. The UK and EU want these disclosures to shame and beat people with. You should resist as far as you can.

  2. Say it like it is says:

    What is goo for the goose is good for the gander.How about legislating that our legislators reveal all their financial interests in the Register and not just a nominal entry, having transferred all their real assets into the names of nominees or other family members.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If what is good for the goose is good for the gander was properly applied you would be asking for the UK’s BO info to be made public. This isnt a requirement coming from the CO government.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Is it really ‘right’ that people and companies can live and benefit from the resources of one country but pay their way in another? It just seems that if for example, taxation was done where a company was HQ’d, it’s CEO and operating Board actually all lived, maybe that country would benefit from revenues and be able to fund it’s healthcare, roads, education, stuff like that.

    Asking for a friend…

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  4. Anonymous says:

    We in the US thank you and the EU for your efforts to become noncompetitive.

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  5. Nicholas B. Robson says:

    England is pressured by States [countries] that cannot control their citizens sufficiently to collect taxes then blames the Colonies for being tax shelters, and threatens an Order-in-Council.
    I question what right England has to dictate to a colony, bearing in mind that colonies existed to produce money for the crown.
    England, which is ruled by an unelected hereditary monarch who is the largest land owner in the world?

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Again: the standard of the UK Beneficial Register they were compelled to extend to UK Territories by EU 5AMLD initiatives, only lists the “persons of significant control”, ie. the legal and/or nominee shareholders, and their standard does not drill down to the UBOs.

    We need to read and understand the difference of what they are/were asking and comply with the threshold of disclosure being set by UK Companies Law. Most importantly, that mother is not yet fully in compliance with the EU law itself, rather just the appearance of having disclosed something of value. Sneaky.

    In their own words, “…keen to strike the correct balance between allowing legitimate access to the data held…and ensuring that it does not infringe on the privacy rights of trust beneficial owners”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Dead right. For some reason this isn’t being talked about enough. What is the minimum we need to do to comply? Considering this is not our government’s policy but something forced on us from above why would we do more?

  7. Anonymous says:

    Of course. While England exists the EU and welcomes the wealthy from Hong Kong. The U.K is undoubtedly going the be the next business friendly jurisdiction of the world along with Deawlare. Cayman entitlement will end because we never valued education to the highest global standards. Our holy hope is that we become the Dartland Islands.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I would much prefer to become the Dartlan Islands, than the Bahamas or Jamaica

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      • Anonymous says:

        Here we go again with the pointless comparison to deflect from the acknowledgment of the problems that currently exist in the cayman islands. That’s played out and won’t work anymore. BTW, we pretty much are Jamaica at this point.

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        • Anonymous says:

          We have no mountains, fresh water, agriculture, or natural resources, so most definitely not like Jamaica.

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          • Anonymous says:

            @ 3.05 So you’ve never been down Shedden Road or Eastern Avenue then?

            • Anonymous says:

              No mountains, fresh water, agriculture or natural resources in either. And the large number of Jamaicans living on both reflects their desire to be here precisely because it isn’t Jamaica.

    • Anonymous says:

      If you dislike Cayman so much why are you here. I guess we know

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      • Anonymous says:

        If you dislike that the people living in Cayman may have critisims of the underfunded historic educational system, then why are you here?
        I guess we know…

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      • Anonymous says:

        I guess they maybe here for the tax free monies they earn. Mind you there is nothing wrong with getting a tax free salary.. the U.K. cannot control how much their citizens earn , obviously they cannot collect their share and expect our ” little 2×4 Rock to collect it for them. Are they expecting to also be privy to who owns all of the loot in Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg? Does Britannia still rule or are they just a mere bully?

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