Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the level of take-up of public registers of beneficial ownership in the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies; and what steps he is taking to persuade such areas to adopt the UK's standard for transparency of company ownership.

International standards on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing, including transparency of legal persons, are set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of which the UK is a leading member. The Caribbean Overseas Territories (OTs) are members of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and as such have signed up to implement the FATF standards. Similarly, the Crown Dependencies (CDs) are members of MONEYVAL, the equivalent organisation for Europe. The OTs and CDs are also subject to mutual evaluations of their AML/CTF regimes through these bodies. The UK Government continues to engage actively with the OTs and CDs to encourage them to make improvements to their AML and CTF regimes in line with the international standards and the UK’s approach.

More specifically, the Government expects each of the OTs with a financial centre to set out timetables for implementing central registries or similarly effective systems by November 2015. The Minister for the Overseas Territories and I wrote to the Leaders of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, which already has a central register, in March stressing the importance of adhering to their commitment to help combat tax evasion.

Finally, The Government welcomes the commitment already made by the Government of Gibraltar to implement the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive which includes a central register of company beneficial ownership.