“Beneficial Ownership Data Must be Structured, Centralised and Accessible”, Says GCFFC

According to the paper issued by the GCFFC, data must be structured, centrally collated, interoperable, and accessible to all the entities fighting financial crime. 

The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) has published a paper suggesting jurisdictions for fillingl the gaps that hinder access to highly usable and high quality data of beneficial ownership (BO). 

As per the paper, beneficial ownership data must be structured, centralised, accessible to all entities fighting FinCrime, and interoperable. 

It is essential that the beneficial ownership data is verified by entities and must have a high degree of fidelity about who owns the company. A system that relies on information without verification is not a practical choice. 

“The use of anonymously owned legal entities – through shell companies, trusts, or other legal constructions – for hiding the proceeds of crime as well as its owners are well documented.” 

The paper suggests that BO must be robustly and clearly defined in law. Moreover, sufficiently low thresholds must be used when ownership and control is disclosed. “However, international standards to date fall short of generating data that is useful and readily available for all law enforcement agencies, obliged entities and other actors fighting financial crime.”