UK Overseas Territories Fall Behind on Beneficial Ownership Transparency

Key findings include: 

➡️ Slow & Missed Commitments: Nearly seven years after Parliament mandated public BO registers, most high-risk Overseas Territories have missed political, legislative, and operational deadlines. 

➡️ Weaker “Legitimate Interest” Models: Several jurisdictions have replaced plans for public registers with EU-style “legitimate interest” access systems, which are more complex, inconsistent, and less transparent. 

➡️ Risk of Incomplete & Unusable Data: Proposed frameworks may still hide ownership behind trusts or alert bad actors when information is accessed, undermining the effectiveness of AML efforts. 

➡️ Limited Progress: Only Gibraltar, Montserrat, and St Helena have established fully public registers, while major centres like the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman continue to fall behind. 

➡️ Scale of Harm: Transparency International’s (TI’s) analysis previously linked opaque companies in the Overseas Territories to 273 major corruption and laundering cases worth £250bn, with the BVI appearing in 92% of cases. 

✅As jurisdictions across the globe continue to focus on enhancing access to BO information, firms should continue to strengthen BO verification processes and prepare for increasing regulatory expectations around transparency and due diligence.