The governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have pledged to move to public registers of beneficial ownership information in three stages. They intend to allow law enforcement bodies access through EU registers during 2021, allow businesses access for due diligence purposes by the end of 2022, and introduce legislation to allow public access in early 2023.
In a joint statement, the three Crown dependencies set out their commitment to the following staged approach:
during 2021, to work collaboratively with the EU on the interconnection of the Islands’ central registers of the beneficial ownership of companies with the registers in the EU, as part of existing political commitments made to the EU to ensure that, on a reciprocal basis, legal and beneficial ownership information can be shared with EU designated competent authorities and Financial Intelligence Units;
to enable access to their central registers of beneficial ownership of companies to obliged entities for due diligence purposes as soon as reasonably practicable following this interconnection referenced above and, in any event, before the end of 2022; and
within 12 months of publication of the EU’s implementation review of the fifth anti-money laundering directive in January 2022, to each bring forward to their own parliament legislative proposals to establish public access to beneficial ownership data of companies held on a central register, in line with the principles of the directive.
The statement says: ‘It is in our strategic interests and our standing as responsible jurisdictions to commit to further develop the accessibility and transparency of our register of beneficial ownership for companies consistent with the approach being adopted by the EU. We will do so in a way that is in line with the principles of the EU fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive within a timeframe that we consider deliverable’.
The governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have pledged to move to public registers of beneficial ownership information in three stages. They intend to allow law enforcement bodies access through EU registers during 2021, allow businesses access for due diligence purposes by the end of 2022, and introduce legislation to allow public access in early 2023.
In a joint statement, the three Crown dependencies set out their commitment to the following staged approach:
during 2021, to work collaboratively with the EU on the interconnection of the Islands’ central registers of the beneficial ownership of companies with the registers in the EU, as part of existing political commitments made to the EU to ensure that, on a reciprocal basis, legal and beneficial ownership information can be shared with EU designated competent authorities and Financial Intelligence Units;
to enable access to their central registers of beneficial ownership of companies to obliged entities for due diligence purposes as soon as reasonably practicable following this interconnection referenced above and, in any event, before the end of 2022; and
within 12 months of publication of the EU’s implementation review of the fifth anti-money laundering directive in January 2022, to each bring forward to their own parliament legislative proposals to establish public access to beneficial ownership data of companies held on a central register, in line with the principles of the directive.
The statement says: ‘It is in our strategic interests and our standing as responsible jurisdictions to commit to further develop the accessibility and transparency of our register of beneficial ownership for companies consistent with the approach being adopted by the EU. We will do so in a way that is in line with the principles of the EU fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive within a timeframe that we consider deliverable’.
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