Beneficial Ownership workshop in Colombia

In parallel to our regional event in Argentina, the EU Global Facility is also in Colombia where it launched its first onsite activity with the country.

Focused on the topic of Beneficial Ownership, the three-day event will start with peer-to-peer exchanges of experience between the Colombian tax authorities (DIAN) and several European beneficial ownership registers. This will serve to discuss the specific features and mechanisms through which beneficial ownership information can be registered, vetted and enforced.

Adriana del Pilar Solano Cantor, Deputy Director of the Tax Registry Administration in Colombia, stated that “This workshop will enable Colombia to identify good practices for the deployment of such beneficial ownership registries, the existing opportunities for improvement of the regulatory framework and IT system in Colombia and the development of new features in the registry such as the registration of the chain of ownership and control. Similarly, this exchange of experience will also serve to identify areas of improvement in the technical framework”.

For his part Alexandre Taymans, Key Expert of the EU Global Facility on Beneficial Ownership, celebrated the launch of this first beneficial ownership training in Colombia. He noted the fact that Colombia already had an operational beneficial ownership registration system and good understanding of the issues that it will face, both in terms of ensuring the availability, quality and accessibility of the information, which will ensure very fruitful discussions and exchanges. He also indicated that beyond the training and exchange of experiences, this activity was also aimed at identifying areas of future cooperation in areas where the expertise of the Global Facility could be deployed to support Colombian authorities.

On Thursday, other competent authorities from Colombia will attend a session focusing on international standards and best practices on the topic of Beneficial Ownership as well as the tools that can be developed to enhance the understanding of BO disclosure requirements.

The sessions will also cover the verification and supervision mechanisms that can be implemented by jurisdictions to ensure that frameworks are effectively implemented by both private and public sector stakeholders.