Transparency International United Kingdom has proposed a way for the British Overseas Territories to “commit to ending corporate secrecy”.

The pressure group has published “comprehensive guidelines for implementing meaningful access to beneficial ownership registers in the UK's offshore financial centres”.

The group said that “Unlocking Ownership Data” comes after Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands committed, at the November 2024 Joint Ministerial Council, to “implement legitimate interest access registers of beneficial ownership with the maximum possible degree of access and transparency”.

The organisation said the document provides five standards including defining beneficial owners and protecting investigators, including journalists and non-governmental organisations, from reprisals.

It combines high-level recommendations from global standards bodies, including the Financial Action Task Force, and legislative experience from the UK and the European Union.

Margot Mollat, senior policy and research manager at Transparency International UK, said: “It has been five years since Britain’s offshore financial centres promised to end corporate secrecy.

“These guidelines show there is a credible, practical path to deliver on transparency commitments and give investigators, journalists and civil society the tools they need to hold wrongdoers to account.

“We can’t afford to get this wrong. Offshore financial secrecy is causing untold damage — costing billions in evaded taxes and facilitating crimes such as corruption, the destruction of the Amazon, modern slavery and drug trafficking.

“With the UK hosting a summit on illicit finance, now is the moment for the Government and territories to demonstrate leadership and ensure these promises are finally turned into action.”

The guidelines recommend that legitimate interest registers should provide broad access to journalists, civil society organisations, academics and third-country authorities without requiring them to justify interest in specific companies. This approach would enable cross-border investigations into financial crime while protecting investigators from reprisals.

The document, said TI, also sets standards for “fully public registers, like those already operating in Gibraltar and Montserrat, which provide the most comprehensive transparency and have proven economic benefits”.

The guidelines could also be followed by other jurisdictions that have committed to the implementation of such registers, including Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.

Key recommendations include:

• Defining beneficial owners in a way that enables investigators to trace the ultimate person owning or controlling a company

• Providing open and unrestricted access to journalists and NGOs investigating financial crime

• Protections for beneficial owners facing genuine security risks

• Protecting journalists, NGOs and other investigators from reprisals by banning company registrars from tipping-off beneficial owners when their data is accessed

• Free access to data in multiple formats including bulk downloads and application programming interfaces

Transparency International UK will publish a technical assessment later in this year, evaluating how key territories compare against these standards.

The guidelines emphasise that while legitimate interest registers can play a role in tackling money laundering, public registers remain “the most straightforward and cost-effective way” of ensuring high-quality, accessible beneficial ownership data.