[open-government] Beneficial ownership registries should be published as open data

Wed Aug 21 12:07:13 UTC 2013

>From the Open Knowledge Foundation blog, by Jonathan Gray, Director of
Policy & Ideas:

Beneficial ownership registries should be published as open data
August 21, 2013 in Campaigning <http://blog.okfn.org/category/campaigning/>
, Featured <http://blog.okfn.org/category/featured/>, Open
Data<http://blog.okfn.org/category/open-data/>
, Open Government Data <http://blog.okfn.org/category/open-government-data/>
, Policy <http://blog.okfn.org/category/policy/>, Public
Money<http://blog.okfn.org/category/campaigning/public-money/>

In the coming months many governments around the world will decide whether
databases of who really owns and controls companies should be made public
or not.

As we’ve said before<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/06/25/what-data-needs-to-be-opened-up-to-tackle-tax-havens/>,
we think registers of ‘beneficial
ownership<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneficial_ownership>‘
(i.e. registers of who really stands to benefit from company ownership, not
just whomever it is convenient or expedient to list) should be published as
open data.

*We call on open data and transparency advocates around the world to join
us in asking their governments to take action on this issue, and to push
for concrete commitments to publish registries of beneficial ownership
publicly, as open, machine readable databases.*

A visualisation of legal entities that are part of the same corporate
grouping fromOpenCorporates<http://opencorporates.com/viz/financial/index.html#goldman//2652>
Who gets to see who really owns companies?

In June G8 countries committed to cracking down on hidden company ownership.

The Lough Erne Declaration<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-lough-erne-declaration/g8-lough-erne-declaration-html-version>
 and principles to prevent the misuse of
companies<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-action-plan-principles-to-prevent-the-misuse-of-companies-and-legal-arrangements/g8-action-plan-principles-to-prevent-the-misuse-of-companies-and-legal-arrangements>
from
the G8 both allude to better information sharing between tax authorities,
and state that tax collectors, law enforcers, financial intelligence units,
and financial institutions should be able to access information on who
really owns companies.

But what about the rest of us? Shouldn’t journalists, campaigners and
citizens have access to information about who really owns companies – in
order to investigate illicit and unfair behaviour and to push for change?
The advantages of public registries

We think that there are many advantages to having public registries of
beneficial ownership information.

Firstly, *public registries would enable the media and civil society to
hold companies to account* – by helping them to identify corruption and
illicit activity.

Secondly, studies by the UK, the EU and Global
Witness<http://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/library/Anonymous%20Companies%20Global%20Witness%20briefing.pdf>
suggest
that *public registries would be significantly more cost effective than the
status quo*.

Thirdly, *public registries will impose no additional administrative burden
on companies* – entailing only small modifications to existing processes.
Making them public is not enough – they must be published as open data

For registries of beneficial ownership to have maximum impact, we think it
is essential that they are published as *machine readable open databases*.

Users of the data must be able to analyse the data and to easily cross
reference and combine datasets from different sources. Hence it is
essential that they are machine readable, and available for downloading in
bulk (as per the Open Definition <http://opendefinition.org/okd/>), rather
than published as non-machine-readable documents or through a search
interface which limits querying.

Furthermore the data should be openly
licensed<http://opendefinition.org/licenses/> to
enable people to use it, republish it, and combine it with other datasets.
We think is essential if we are to gradually piece together a *shared,
collaborative ecosystem of data about companies and their activity around
the world*.
Now is time to act

There are several major opportunities to make progress on this issue in the
coming months:

   - The *UK* currently has an open
consultation<https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/company-ownership-transparency-and-trust-discussion-paper>
on
   beneficial ownership (closing 16th September 2013), which explicitly asks
   for views on whether the registry should be made public. If you’re in the
   UK and want to see the registry being made public as open data, we strongly
   encourage you to
respond<https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/company-ownership-transparency-and-trust-discussion-paper>
with
   arguments and evidence about why this matters. If the UK commits to making
   registries public, then it is much more likely that other countries will
   follow.
   - The *EU* is also in the process of updating and improving its Anti
   Money Laundering
Directive<http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/company/financial-crime/index_en.htm>,
   which represents a major opportunity to increase transparency of beneficial
   ownership in Europe.
   - For the *Open Government Partnership partner countries*, the Open
   Government Partnership
Summit<http://www.opengovpartnership.org/ogp-london-annual-summit>
this
   autumn will provide an opportune moment for governments to announce their
   commitments to public registries of beneficial ownership. We hope to see as
   many governments and civil society organisations as possible coming out in
   support of public registries, published in accordance with open data
   principles.

You’ll be hearing more from us on this issue in the coming weeks and
months, so watch this space! If you’re interested in discussing this with
us, you can join our public
openspending<http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending>
 list.
Original post:
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/08/21/beneficial-ownership-registries-should-be-published-as-open-data/

-- 

Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  |  @villum <http://www.twitter.com/villum>
The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
*Empowering through Open Knowledge
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