U.K. overseas territories will not be required to set up public registers of beneficial ownership after Prime Minister Theresa May's government struck a deal with lawmakers to allow the passage of new anti-money laundering rules before national elections commence in June.
U.K. lawmakers will attempt to force the government to improve corporate transparency in its overseas, semi-autonomous jurisdictions, but could end up hindering the passage of key anti-money laundering legislation in the process, sources told ACAMS moneylaundering.com.
The British government has rejected calls by lawmakers to impose more-stringent corporate transparency standards on U.K. overseas territories and dependencies, claiming that the jurisdictions are already "well ahead" of other international tax havens.
U.K. overseas territories officials in London this week pledged to create central registries or similar effective systems to share data on beneficial owners more easily with financial crime investigators, but didn't disclose when and how they would comply with the initiative.
U.K. lawmakers are considering drafting legislation to force the nation's overseas territories to make corporate ownership data more readily available to investigators, according to sources.
U.K. elections in May aren't likely to spare British territories from implementing new corporate transparency measures, but the results could determine how soon and how far those steps are taken.
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