On September 8, 2021, the government of the Cayman Islands issued a statement according to which the jurisdiction will introduce a Central Register of Beneficiaries by 2023.
Since 2017, there has been a duty in the Cayman Islands for companies to keep records of their beneficial owners and provide them upon request to the General Register of the Government, but only for certain purposes and for certain parties (for example, UK law enforcement agencies). Currently, the public only has access to the current directors of the enterprise, the registered office, the nature of the business, and the end date of the fiscal year.
Public registries are expected to become an international regulatory standard within two years. An advisory document issued by the government examines the legal acts that constitute the beneficial ownership structure of the Cayman Islands, taking into account the beneficial ownership standards set by the FATF, the global developer of anti-money laundering standards. The paper also analyzes the feedback received to date from the Cayman Islands financial services industry and addresses data security issues.
According to the proposal, the Caymans will consolidate all of their beneficial ownership legislation into a single act, as other jurisdictions (Bahamas, BVI, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey) have already done. This will entail amendments to the relevant company laws as well as any other laws that refer to beneficial ownership provisions. Previously tax-exempt legal entities will also be included in the system, which will also be expanded to require reporting on the citizenship of the beneficiary and the mechanism by which the beneficiary exercises control.
The extent of public access to beneficial ownership information has not yet been determined. Currently, the Government believes that only the name of the adult beneficiary, date of birth, country of residence, citizenship and the nature of the control that the person has over the organization will be available to the public upon request.
