Topic: beneficial ownership

The United Kingdom is seeking an agreement with other leading economic powers in western Europe – and elsewhere – that will lead to the automatic exchange of data on company and trust ownership information.

Cayman Islands government officials are still trying to decide who will be responsible locally for handling formal requests for company and trust ownership information under an agreement they signed with the United Kingdom last month.

Cayman Finance said it supports the agreement concluded between the Cayman Islands government and the United Kingdom over improvements to the way beneficial ownership information is collected and exchanged with foreign tax authorities and law enforcement.

The Cayman Islands government and the United Kingdom announced Monday a new agreement on accessing company ownership information, that has been in the works since 2013.

The Cayman Islands government has engaged “top constitutional counsel” to challenge any potential threat of the U.K. taking “direct rule” of its territories.

As the pressure on the U.K. grows to rein in offshore centers in its overseas territories and Crown dependencies, financial service providers there are saying they have implemented the global transparency standards that are lacking in Panama and elsewhere.

The U.K. government should consider imposing direct rule on its overseas territories and Crown dependencies if they fail to comply with U.K. tax laws, according to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Following the release of the “Panama Papers,” the Cayman Islands Ministry of Financial Services has issued a statement saying “the disclosure has further amplified the need for global cooperation,” but it would need to be in accordance with accepted international standards.

In their guilty plea in a U.S. court on Wednesday, Cayman National Trust and Cayman National Securities admitted to encouraging U.S. taxpayer clients to open accounts in the name of sham trusts and sham companies in the Cayman Islands to conceal their beneficial ownership of these accounts.

Following an invitation from Premier Alden McLaughlin at the Joint Ministerial Council in London last December, senior representatives from the U.K.’s National Crime Agency and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office visited the Cayman Islands last week to discuss cooperation between both countries’ law enforcement agencies and Cayman’s progress in enhancing its beneficial ownership information regime.