Governments of various countries restrict access to beneficial ownership registers or postpone their launch.
Beneficial ownership
The question of who really owns and controls a company has been relevant for centuries. Corrupt officials and businesspeople who want to avoid paying taxes have long used shell companies — often registered abroad — to influence contract decisions or to reduce their tax obligations illegally.
At the same time, many entrepreneurs use complex company structures or “middleman” firms to keep their real wealth private and protect themselves from potential risks such as theft, blackmail, or fraud. Still, governments and potential business partners are always interested in knowing who is truly behind a company. That’s why the concept of beneficial ownership exists.
The term “beneficial owner” first appeared in the 1940s in the context of international taxation — for example, in the 1942 tax treaty between the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom later adopted the same idea in similar agreements with other countries.
A beneficial owner is a person who directly or indirectly owns a company or has significant influence over its decisions.
It’s worth noting that the beneficial owner is not always named in official company documents. In many cases, they are the real owner of the assets and receive profits from the company’s activities behind the scenes.
In the 1970s, a global trend emerged toward the “optimization” of international taxation. Small countries in Latin America, as well as former colonies and overseas territories of European powers, lacked sufficient resources for economic development. To attract capital, they began offering company registration services with minimal or even zero taxation — provided that special fees were paid. The real owners of such companies were guaranteed a high level of confidentiality or the ability to manage the firm through a so-called nominee agent.
Entrepreneurs from highly developed or resource-rich countries often registered companies in these offshore jurisdictions to act as “foreign investors” in their own countries and avoid paying taxes. In addition, corrupt officials and organized crime figures could easily use offshore entities to win lucrative contracts — taking advantage of their political or criminal connections — without fear of being exposed.
The tax losses of major economies from these offshore schemes grew so rapidly that the issue of beneficial ownership transparency became a serious concern at the international level. In 2012, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) adopted a new set of recommendations. Recommendation No. 24 focused on the “transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons.”
From 2020 onward, FATF experts worked on amendments that further strengthened this recommendation. These revisions were officially adopted in 2022. The FATF required all countries to prevent the misuse of legal entities for money laundering and terrorism financing. To achieve this, authorities must collect information about company control and beneficial ownership and make it accessible to the relevant competent bodies.
By the late 2010s, the European Union had become a global leader in promoting the disclosure of beneficial ownership. Brussels issued a series of directives requiring EU countries to collect information about the ultimate owners of businesses and make it publicly accessible. However, in 2022, the European Court of Justice ruled on a case brought by a Luxembourg entrepreneur, finding that public access to beneficial ownership registers violated human rights related to personal privacy.
Following this decision, European governments gradually began to restrict access to these registers. The exception was the United Kingdom, which had already left the EU before the ruling. The UK not only retained rules on public disclosure of beneficial ownership in its legislation but also requires its overseas and dependent territories to implement similar measures.
Overall, there has been a recent global trend toward limiting public access to beneficial ownership information. This is partly driven by the outflow of capital from countries that disclose too much information about entrepreneurs.
Beneficial ownership control around the world — October 2025
Following the European Court of Justice ruling, Portuguese authorities are restricting access to the beneficial ownership register. The President has signed a decree changing the legal framework of the Central Register of Beneficial Owners. This decision was approved by the Council of Ministers and aligns Portugal’s regulations with EU Court decisions regarding access to national beneficial ownership data.
The new regulation requires proof of a legitimate interest to access register information. The government stated that the change is “aimed at ensuring a fair balance between protecting fundamental rights, such as privacy and personal data protection, and achieving public interest goals, such as safeguarding the EU financial system against money laundering and terrorism financing.”
Under the previous system, anyone wishing to consult a company’s register could simply state a reason for access. Under the new rules, individuals will be required to demonstrate a legitimate interest in order to obtain the information.
Experts in Bermuda have commented on the recent adoption of the Beneficial Ownership Act. The new law removed the Bermuda Monetary Authority’s powers over beneficial ownership oversight and officially appointed the Registrar of Companies as the administrator of the beneficial ownership register. Under the law, public companies whose shares are traded on the stock exchange, as well as their subsidiaries (where they own at least 75% of shares or voting rights), are exempt from submitting beneficial ownership reports.
A beneficial owner is defined as a person who owns 25% or more of the shares or voting rights, has control over the company’s management bodies, or otherwise exercises significant influence over the company. The information must be stored at the company’s registered address in Bermuda and remain accessible at all times to the Registrar of Companies.
If a company’s management attempts to obstruct the Registrar, the Registrar may take legal action against the company. However, access to the register via the Registrar will be limited to a restricted list of authorized persons.
For businesses and service providers, this signals higher expectations, as accuracy, verification, and compliance enforcement now take center stage
— writes Jarrion Richardson, Head of Regulatory Compliance at Appleby, in the Royal Gazette.
According to Richardson, the new law consolidates existing ownership disclosure rules into a single legal framework, raises the standards for verifying information about shareholders and controllers, and tightens compliance requirements.
The law also addresses external oversight requirements and represents a strategic investment in Bermuda’s ability to maintain access to capital and trade. The bill introduces several significant changes to the way information about company owners is collected, verified, and enforced across Bermuda. Its scope is broad, extending transparency obligations throughout the island’s corporate landscape. A central element of the new law is the requirement for proper verification of beneficial ownership information. From now on, the information provided must be supported by identification documents
— writes Jarrion Richardson.
Richardson emphasizes the need to balance “external pressure for transparency with Bermuda’s own constitutional and legal measures to protect privacy.” The next step is to see how official authorities in London will respond to these developments.
Work on a beneficial ownership register in Australia has been ongoing for many years, and оrecent developments have sent mixed signals.
In 2024, the Australian government promised to launch a register of ultimate business owners quickly, making it available to a limited circle of government agencies and journalists. Now, the Treasury Department has pledged to make the register publicly accessible. However, its launch has been postponed until 2028.
The ability to conceal company ownership can facilitate all kinds of crimes, including tax evasion, money laundering, and fraud. The register is expected to include sanctions for individuals acting as nominees who fail to disclose on whose behalf they are operating
— noted Dr. Mark Zirnsak of the Tax Justice Network Australia in an interview with local media.
Nevertheless, the register’s launch has been delayed until the next federal elections, effectively allowing the current government to avoid responsibility for the project for the time being.
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