Regulating Legitimate Interest Access: Measures to ensure meaningful access to beneficial ownership registers for public-interest stakeholders

Anonymous companies and trusts continue to be vehicles of choice for those seeking to hide and move illicit money. Secrecy enables individuals to exploit the global financial system to evade accountability and commit further crimes with impunity.  Access to information on the true owners and controllers – or ‘beneficial owners’ – of legal entities or arrangements such as companies or trusts is an essential component in the fight against money laundering and its predicate offences including corruption, tax abuse and organised crime. As such, access to beneficial ownership registers serves a critical purpose in combating societal harms.

Authorities tasked with combating financial crime alone cannot uncover all infractions and keep pace with evolving methods and patterns used by white-collar criminals. Civil society, journalists and academics play critical roles in this fight – uncovering abuse, providing research evidence and analysis, and identifying trends and policy gaps. Recent case studies demonstrate the importance of access to beneficial ownership data by civil society and media in uncovering corruption and financial crime as well as identifying loopholes and patterns to motivate further reforms.

While some countries extend access to beneficial ownership information to the public, others – particularly those that have set up their regimes under anti-money laundering frameworks – instead recognise the important role of journalists and civil society in preventing money laundering and associated crimes, stating that they have a “legitimate interest” in accessing beneficial ownership information. A growing number of countries are adopting this approach.

As countries consider setting up legitimate interest-based access regimes, they must ensure this access is effective and meaningful. In line with aim, Transparency International outlines how policymakers and register authorities can create robust legitimate-interest access regimes across 5 dimensions:

1. Defining who has legitimate interest
2. Assessing legitimate interest
3. Timeline and appeal mechanisms
4. Modality, scope and ease of access
5. Measures to prevent abuse