In April, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, the British government announced that all of the crown dependencies and British overseas territories – including BVI – had formally agreed to exchange information relating to the beneficial ownership of companies to UK law enforcement.
Speaking at a press briefing in London on Friday, Benito Wheatley, director of the group of Island’s UK office, said the tax haven would not make its register of beneficial ownership public – making information about owners of companies available to the general scrutiny – unless other offshore jurisdictions lead the way.
“Firstly, it must have global application, it can’t be some jurisdictions. Everybody has to do it. We have to have a level playing field,” he said.
However, the BVI has not ruled out creating a public register altogether.
During the UK’s anti-corruption summit, held in London in May, BVI officials made it “very clear we are very happy to adopt it [beneficial ownership] when it becomes an international standard,” revealed Wheatley.
“BVI wants to be a part of the discussion to establish it [an international standard on a public register],” said Wheatley.
He added that the British overseas territory is currently implementing a “virtual platform” which will give the BVI government access to all beneficial ownership information held in the jurisdiction, but it is not a central register.
The comments come despite France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan all agreeing to launch their own public registers of company ownership at the UK’s anti-corruption summit, held in London in May.
Meanwhile Australia, New Zealand, Jordan, Indonesia, Ireland and Georgia have agreed to take the initial steps towards making similar arrangements.
Concerns
Wheatley also highlighted concerns around the legal challenges of implementing a public register as well as around data security.
“For example, if there are six jurisdictions and one jurisdiction has information on citizens from a number of countries, do you share all those citizen’s information with regulators of countries they are not a part of.
“The third concern is data security. We need to make sure the information is protected against cyber-attacks,” he said.
Panama Papers
Located in the Caribbean, the British overseas territory has come under scrutiny since April following the Panama Papers expose.
It involved the leak of more than 11 million files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca which revealed how the rich and powerful around the world use offshore shell companies registered in tax havens such as the BVI to avoid paying tax.
According to data presented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), BVI came out as the tax haven of choice with half of the companies that appear in Mossack Fonseca’s files – more than 113,000 – incorporated on the Islands while the second favourite jurisdiction was Panama.
Following the scandal, more than 25 EU-member countries and the offshore centres of the Isle of Man and Gibraltar also signed a deal setting up a confidential beneficial ownership register which would automatically share information on the ultimate owners of companies.
