UK government tells Jersey to open the books

Friday 27 March 2015

The UK government is continuing the pressure on Jersey and other finance centres to create a public register of company ownership to meet what they call “the urgent challenges of illicit finance and tax evasion”.

Jersey already has a registry of beneficial ownership – effectively, a list of companies that says who really owns them – but it’s a private document that’s only available to regulators, tax authorities and law enforcement.

The pressure from the UK is to open that registry to public scrutiny – something that they say they’re planning to do themselves.

Guernsey and the Isle of Man have been running a consultation on whether a public register would be the right thing to do, and Jersey has closed a consultation on whether our system is effective or not.

The matter was raised in the House of Lords on Monday, when Labour Peer Lord Watson of Invergowrie tabled a written question on what progress had been made on the subject of public registers of beneficial ownership.

Lord Deighton, the Conservative Peer who serves as Commercial Secretary to The Treasury, responded saying: “The Government is in continued dialogue with the Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies on the need to improve the transparency of company beneficial ownership information and we are keeping them informed as UK policy develops.

“We believe that a central public register of company beneficial ownership is the best way to improve transparency of company ownership and meet the urgent challenges of illicit finance and tax evasion.

“At the December Joint Ministerial Council the UK and Overseas Territory Leaders agreed to work together in raising international standards and to meet again to take forward implementation of the G20 Principles on beneficial ownership. Dialogue has continued with the Overseas Territories since the Joint Ministerial Council and we plan to meet again in the coming weeks.

“The Crown Dependencies have also committed to issue consultations on establishing central registries or in Jersey’s case - where a private register already exists - to assess its effectiveness. The consultations in Jersey and the Isle of Man have closed and Guernsey’s consultation is due in the first quarter of 2015.”