The EU Global Facility on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism on Tuesday 15 November 2022 hosted a closed webinar on the topic of “Beneficial Ownership Transparency and Complex Ownership Structures”, which gathered representatives from international and regional organisations, BO Registers and competent authorities from partner countries, as well as experts from academia, the private sector and civil society.
The agenda included institutional speakers from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Secretariat and APGML as well as authorities from Austria and Belgium.
This was followed by several short presentations on cases of complex structures from a wide range of experts and topics including: corruption, money laundering, banking transactions, mafia-infiltration, tax avoidance, investment funds and extractive industries.
In his opening remarks, EU GF Team Leader David Hotte highlighted the emerging challenges stemming from such complex structures in the identification of BO and in the setting-up of effective disclosure systems within jurisdictions.
He thanked the panellists and large number of attendees. “With over 400 registered participants, this activity is a testimony to the need for further work to be conducted on this topic. The EU Global Facility will therefore continue its ongoing work in this domain.”
Our Key Expert on Beneficial Ownership Alexandre Taymans, described the work being carried by the project with partner countries and organisations, which includes bringing together experts from the public and private sector, as well as civil society representatives. He emphasised that “the composition of the panel and the wide range of expertise put together today, is a reflection of the multi-stakeholder engagement and enforcement strategies that will inevitably be required for BO disclosure systems to be made effective”.
He discussed the follow-up work to be conducted in this domain, which will involve discussing measures to address and reduce the risk of complexity affecting beneficial ownership transparency.
This project is funded by the European Union.