For immediate release: 21 April 2014 Government’s public register of beneficial ownership will damage UK business The International Financial Centres Forum comments on the publication of the Government’s consultation response to its Transparency and Trust discussion paper. On the proposals for central registers of ultimate beneficial ownership information (UBO) for corporations to be publicly accessible, Grant Stein, Chairman of the IFC Forum, said: “Renewed trust and confidence in British business will be important to the continued growth of the economy. “However, the Government’s commitment for the UK to be the first country to establish a central public register of UBO data will damage the UK business environment. In the likely event that Asian and US financial markets do not adopt these proposals with the same speed and scope, there is a real danger that significant investment to the UK will be at risk. This will ultimately undermine the Government’s efforts to support investment and growth. “We remain concerned by the Government’s proposed reliance on self-‐ reporting; we do not believe that this can produce a credible system. Without an effective mechanism for systematic verification, the accuracy of the data collected cannot be relied upon and overall transparency efforts will be thwarted. “The priority must be for the UBO tracking and verification mechanism to be effective, without harming the economy. The Government should consider the licensing and supervision of corporate service providers, and should also stage the implementation of the register to ensure that data is only made publicly available once it is clear that such a step will neither endanger British business nor breach the fundamental human right to privacy. Further, adequate safeguards must be imposed to ensure that publicly available data cannot be misused.” -‐ Ends -‐ Notes to editors: The IFC Forum is a multi-‐jurisdictional private sector organisation with international law and accounting member firms operating across a number of British Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories and other IFCs. Current members are Appleby, Attride-‐Stirling & Woloniecki (ASW), Bedell Group, Butterfield Group, Conyers Dill & Pearman, Global Finance Mauritius, Harneys, Intertrust, Maples and Calder, Mourant Ozannes, Ogier, Rawlinson & Hunter and Walkers. The British offshore centres adopted systems to collect beneficial ownership information 10 to 12 years ago in support of the FATF Anti Money Laundering and OECD Harmful Tax Practices programs. Those centres addressed the risks of concealment and errors in such data by requiring potential incorporations to be carried out exclusively through government licensed and regulated corporate service providers. For further information please contact: [email protected]