Foreign affairs select committee calls for overseas territories to publish ownership registers
The Foreign Affairs select committee has called today for British Overseas territories to publish registers of the ultimate owners of assets on national security grounds.
The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act which became law in May 2018 requires British overseas territories such as Anguilla and Bermuda to establish publicly-accessible registers of beneficial ownership by 31 December 2020.
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This would allow the public to know who the ultimate owner of an asset was.
However, the governments of some overseas territories, notably Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, strongly oppose the measure.
The foreign affairs select committee said today that "those who seek to undermine our security and that of our allies must not be able to use the overseas territories to launder their funds."
The committee called on the foreign secretary and the governments of the overseas territories to lay out a detailed timetable of how they plan to establish public registers before the summer recess.
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Chair of the committee, Tom Tugendhat MP, said: “The UK and the overseas territories are family, but that relationship must be underpinned by shared duties to each other and values.”