UK says islands are not moving "at the pace expected" on beneficial ownership registers

Wednesday 20 December 2023

Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man should move faster to help tackle financial crime, the UK has said.

The Crown dependencies are currently defying UK Government expectations on introducing public registers of beneficial ownership, as well as moving more slowly than wanted on other ways of opening up.

In 2019 they committed to full public access which would allow anyone to know who ultimately owns a company based in the islands, but after a European court ruling in November 2022 rolled back on that.

Proponents of public access say it is key in helping fight money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance as well as helping to expose conflicts of interest.

Currently 14 EU Member States and Gibraltar have public registers.

“The UK is satisfied with the lawfulness of our own publicly accessible registers and continues to believe that the CDs could legally implement public registers of their own,” said Home Office Minister Tom Tugendhat in a written statement yesterday.

He said that there have been discussions with the CDs on providing access to beneficial ownership information to those with a legitimate interest, such as media and civil society organisations who are involved in the fight against illicit finance and money laundering.

“Legitimate interest access would bring the CDs into line with the EU, where the CJEU [Court of Justice of the European Union] judgement notes that EU Member States must continue to enable access to those with ‘legitimate interest’. 

“For the CDs to implement legitimate interest access would be a very significant step forward in beneficial ownership transparency and improve the security of the UK and the wider British family. Nevertheless, the UK Government is still committed to publicly accessible registers becoming the global norm.”

The Home Office has laid down “clear expectations” that the dependencies should implement registers with legitimate interest access in 2024.

“The CDs state they will present proposals to their parliaments for agreement on the definition and implementation of legitimate interest by Q4 2024 at the latest. Given the original commitments were made in 2019 and the increasing use of finance to coordinate action against the interests of the British people and the wider British family, this is not the pace that I expect, and I urge the CDs to work as quickly as possible next year to implement these commitments.”

Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have also said that they will deliver obliged entity access during 2024.

This will mean financial services business and other operations will be able to use the register to carry out due diligence checks.

“I consider delivering obliged entity access across the CDs has been slower than it should be given the need to protect our financial institutions from use by hostile states, terrorists and criminals. This recognition of commitment is still welcome.”

He ended his statement by saying: “Parliament will wish to consider these commitments and closely monitor the situation.”

Pictured top: Home Office Minister Tom Tugendhat, image from Parliament TV.