Territories agree to disclose beneficial ownership to UK

The government has agreed with the Crown dependencies and overseas territories that they will provide information on the beneficial ownership of companies to UK law enforcement and tax agencies.

In a statement to the House of Commons on 11 April the prime minister announced that such arrangements had been finalised with these territories except Anguilla and Guernsey.

David Cameron said this placed the overseas territories and Crown dependencies ‘well ahead of many other similar jurisdictions and also — crucially — ahead of many of our major international partners including some states in the US’.

Bermuda’s premier Michael H Dunkley confirmed that the territory had signed an agreement with the UK extending the programme of sharing beneficial ownership information from its central register. He said Bermuda already passed this information to HMRC within 24 hours but would now open its register to the UK National Crime...