Craig Cannonier, the Shadow Minister of Public Works and the Environment, has fired back at a report that gave one element of Bermuda’s Beneficial Ownership regime an “F”.

While Transparency International UK pointed the finger at Bermuda among financial centres that have not yet delivered on transparency commitments, Mr Cannonier said that the island was well ahead of the curve — and the UK itself.

He said: “Conducting assessments and declaring grades, like ‘F’ implies a master-student relationship.

“In the sphere of beneficial ownership, we, Bermuda, should be assessing these would-be masters. There is little evidence that they understand the role and value proposition that Bermuda provides for the global economy.

“Instead, they reiterate the worn-out platitude that we are hiding looted money from the treasuries of countries that they would otherwise do good things with.

“Well, in case they haven’t noticed, these same countries have trillions of dollars to spend, and a lot of it is wasted on inefficiency, corruption, weapons and polluting industries. It appears that Bermuda’s business model has had no impact on such activities.”

Transparency International UK, the British wing of Transparency International, the self-styled “world’s leading non-governmental anti-corruption organisation”, recently called on Britain to crack down on territories not living up to transparency commitments.

The organisation released ratings based on a blueprint, published earlier this year to give Overseas Territories practical guidance on how to meet their commitments and reveal the ultimate owners of registered companies, whether through public or legitimate interest registers.

Bermuda received an F, or failing grade, for the lack of accessibility of their registers and a C, a barely passing grade, for its beneficial ownership framework score.

Responding to the rating, Mr Cannonier said that Bermudian authorities had long insisted on being told the beneficial owners of any entity established here.

He said: “In Bermuda, the beneficial ownership data is actually known and collected at the Bermuda Monetary Authority, originally in the form of paper files, but now electronically. This is the so-called Beneficial Ownership Register.

“You may think that most, if not every, jurisdiction would have such an arrangement, but you would be wrong. None of the other Overseas Territories have such a database.

“The UK itself used to have Exchange Control but abolished it in 1979, along with all the staff, facilities and data.

“So, imagine the hypocrisy when the UK Government met with Bermuda Government officials during my premiership, and demanded that Bermuda should set up a register of beneficial ownership, when it did not have one itself.

“Officials were not amused when the Bermuda Government informed them that not only did we have such a register, it was over 70 years old and that we would be happy to assist the UK in constructing its own.”

Mr Cannonier said that Bermuda “stands alone in the depth and quality of its data” while newly created registries would be incomplete.

He said that the “bone of contention” is how widely information in the registry is shared, stating that it was originally shared with no one including local government officials.

Mr Cannonier said: “As times changed, Bermuda had to change as well. During my Premiership we agreed to share data on beneficial ownership with certain ‘Competent Authorities’.

“These included foreign law enforcement agencies to assist in fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing investigations. We also agreed to share information with foreign investigations regarding tax evasion.

“The contentious issue was always whether journalists qualified as competent authorities.”

Mr Cannonier said Transparency International tarred all of the OTs with the same brush and noted that journalists had used “highly questionable tactics” to “shine a light” on jurisdictions.

He said: “While the Panama Papers were very revealing, the Bermuda-focused Paradise Papers, where they illegally hacked Appleby’s client files, were highly questionable.

“And for what? A sensational Panorama programme that revealed that one of Bermuda’s clients was connected to the Royal Family. Really?”

Mr Cannonier’s remarks came as David Burt, the Premier, finished up leading a Bermuda delegation, joining The Foreign Secretary and Minister for the Overseas Territories, and the elected leaders and representatives of other OTs for the thirteenth Joint Ministerial Council in London.