The Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group

The Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group

The Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group was formed in 2019 to drive the global policy shift towards free, open beneficial ownership data. Governments increasingly recognise the value of beneficial ownership transparency for promoting effective governance and efficient markets.

By joining the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group, each country signs up to a set of best practice principles of disclosure. Convened jointly by Open Ownership and the Open Government Partnership , the Leadership Group members in July 2022 are: Armenia, Kenya, Latvia, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, the Slovak Republic, and the United Kingdom.

Find out more:

The Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group is open to all governments that are making determined efforts to improve the transparency and quality of their beneficial ownership data. If you would like further information about the group and how to join, please contact us at [email protected].

Principles of beneficial ownership data disclosure for Leadership Group members

By joining the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group, governments publicly signal their intention to adhere to the following principles on beneficial ownership data disclosure (note: these do not represent legally-binding commitments for signatory states).

Members should:

  • publish company beneficial ownership data that is freely downloadable, searchable, and reusable by the public, without a fee, proprietary software, or the need for registration;
  • implement progressively ambitious best practice in beneficial ownership transparency across technical, legislative, regulatory, and administrative parameters;
  • commit to producing resources that enable improvements and iterations to data quality and standardisation;
  • contribute to the building of best practice, including by recognising the evolving threat of illicit finance and considering implementing beneficial ownership transparency beyond companies to a wider group of assets classes;
  • work in partnership with civil society and enable their role as watchdogs and users of the data;
  • engage other partners, including governments and international institutions, to advance the objective of making beneficial ownership transparency a global norm; and
  • contribute to the evaluation and impact assessment of our shared approach.

Members

The Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group is open to all governments that are making determined efforts to improve the transparency and quality of their beneficial ownership data. If you would like further information about the group and how to join, please contact us at [email protected].