Beneficial Ownership Transparency – Assessing Funder Contributions
Case Studies Overview
For each of the 8 policy outcomes reviewed, we have developed a mini case study. These provide an overview of how the outcome was achieved, contributions made, the enablers and barriers to progress, and lessons learned.
In 2021, the Canadian government committed to development of a federal beneficial ownership registry by 2025 – culmination of several years of dedicated effort.
In 2018, support from OGP and The Champion’s Grant facilitated a set of discussions between key stakeholders in the country, leading to the 2018 OGP National Action Plan to co-create a proposal for a centralized beneficial ownership register.
The EITI mandated in 2016 that by 2020, EITI members must create a public beneficial ownership register or include beneficial ownership information in their public EITI reporting.
The 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, passed in 2018, mandates public disclosure of beneficial ownership for all companies in EU countries by 2020.
The Amended Companies and Allies Matters Bill, passed in 2020, includes the requirement to disclose persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency.
In 2016 the UK Government launched the People with Significant Control register, and later in 2018 mandated all British Overseas Territories do the same by 2023.
In 2014-2015, Ukraine’s Members of Parliament voted in favor of legislation enabling the creation and publication of beneficial ownership data. The data became publicly accessible as open data in 2017 through the Ministry of Justice.
In October 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Corporate Transparency Act (HR2513) and in 2020, the Senate was able to pass the ILLICT Cash Act and include elements of HR 2513 into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which was enacted in January 2021.