preview

Analysis Of The Proposals Put Forward By Uk Government ( Department For Business, Innovation & Skills )

Decent Essays

In the analysis of the proposals put forward by UK Government (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) paper on ‘Transparency & Trust) and other intergovernmental agencies such as the Financial Action Task Force (Guidance on Transparency and Beneficial Ownership Recommendations 24 and 25) , G20 (High-Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership) and the European Commission (Fourth Money Laundering Directive) to increase the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal structures, some core principles have been highlighted with a view to protecting the integrity of the financial system. These principles stressed the need to understand who ultimately own companies and other legal arrangements by mandating that countries maintain a …show more content…

On 21 April 2014 the UK government published its response to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills’ (BIS) paper on ‘Transparency & Trust: Enhancing the transparency of UK company ownership and increasing trust in UK business’, a paper aimed at enhancing the transparency of UK company ownership and increase trust in UK business. Following this, in March 2015, the UK Parliament passed into law the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (SBEE) which takes into account the FATF Guidance on Transparency of Beneficial Ownership to enhance the transparency of Legal Persons and Legal arrangements.
Summary of certain reforms introduced by the SBEE Act
Numerous reforms that were introduced for UK companies as part of this Act included but was not limited to:
a. Identification of “persons with significant control” (PSCs) over the company and maintaining a register of those persons. These registers would need to be made available and searchable to the public.
The SBEE Act12 will require UK companies are required to update their ‘qualifying beneficial owners’ in the public register such as Companies House. The UK Government’s definition of a qualifying beneficial owner in the context of money laundering is someone who ultimately controls an interest of 25% of shares of voting rights of the company or an individual who otherwise exercise control over the company or its management. Where the beneficial interest is held by a trust

Get Access