Just For Show? Reviewing G20 Promises on Beneficial Ownership

Major corruption scandals hitting the news often share key commonalities: the people at the centre of the scandal use a complex web of anonymous companies, trusts and other legal entities situated across multiple jurisdictions to transfer and hide their illicitly sourced funds.This report aims to encourage a conversation in each country on where laws can be improved to strengthen the beneficial ownership regulatory framework. Alongside this report, also published are individual summaries for each G20 member, which provide more detailed analysis on an individual basis. The combined findings should be used to help identify which concrete legal provisions should be adopted in order to adhere to the commitments within the G20 principles. Where they exist, Transparency International encourages competent authorities, such as tax and banking regulators, as well as law enforcement agencies, to ensure the strong legal basis is effectively enforced within these countries to close the tap on illicit financial flows to and from their jurisdiction.