Transparency International UK publishes blueprint for ending financial secrecy in British offshore centres

Transparency International UK today published comprehensive guidelines for implementing meaningful access to beneficial ownership registers in the UK's offshore financial centres, providing a detailed roadmap for territories committed to ending corporate secrecy.

Unlocking Ownership Data comes after Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands committed at the November 2024 Joint Ministerial Council to "implement Legitimate Interest Access Registers of Beneficial Ownership (LIARBOs) with the maximum possible degree of access and transparency."

The document provides five standards covering everything from defining beneficial owners to protecting investigators, including journalists and NGOs, from reprisals. It combines high-level recommendations from global standards bodies, including the Financial Action Task Force, and legislative experience from the UK and EU.

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 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 APIs

Transparency International UK will publish a technical assessment later in 2025 evaluating how key Overseas 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.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• A previous investigation by Transparency International UK found £5.9 billion worth of suspicious funds that had been used to purchase UK properties through shell companies registered in Britain’s Overseas Territories. Over 90% of suspect funds invested into the UK via an Overseas Territory went through the British Virgin Islands, equivalent to £5.5 billion in value.
• The scale of money in the UK property sector funnelled through Overseas Territories is just the tip of the iceberg. Our previous 2018 research, using evidence from 237 corruption cases from the last 30 years, found that shell companies registered in our Overseas Territories had been involved in large corruption cases, inflicting £250 billion of economic damage across 79 different countries. Over 90% of companies from the Overseas Territories involved in these cases were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
• In June 2025, Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering standards body, greylisted the British Virgin Islands highlighting several deficiencies in its laws and practices, including:
  • authorities failing to recognise the role companies incorporated in the Virgin Islands play in economic crime beyond its borders
  • inadequate anti-money laundering checks by the trust and company services industry
  • lax oversight of the industry from regulators
• Previous research commissioned by the UK Government estimated that corporate transparency reforms in the UK produced data worth up to £3 billion to users across the public and private sectors, with the records accessed over 6 billion times in just one year https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-report-estimates-value-of-companies-house-data-at-up-to-3-billion-per-year
• Subsequent research in 2024 found that UK transparency reforms were worth at least hundreds of millions of pounds in the fight against economic alone https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/670e554d366f494ab2e7b88c/policy_summary_report_value_corporate_transparency_tackling_crime_october_2024.pdf
• TI-UK's has responded to legislative consultations by Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, and subsequent policy update from the British Virgin Islands.