http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/57b53cc4-d4af-11e4-8be8-00144feab7de.html#axzz3VeSOjVUz

March 27, 2015 7:27 pm

Tax havens told to drop opposition to UK call for central register

Vanessa Houlder

Leading offshore financial centres have been told to rethink their opposition to David Cameron’s demand that they create a central register revealing companies’ ultimate owners.

The government has told the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands to set out specific timetables for implementing central registers or similar systems by November. It has also written to Bermuda, which already has a central register, asking it to make the information more accessible to law enforcement agencies.The letters, jointly signed by ministers from the Treasury and the Foreign Office, were sent a day after the UK’s own legislation to improve transparency around corporate ownership gained Royal Assent, introducing a new requirement for companies to keep a register of people with significant control from January 2016.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/57b53cc4-d4af-11e4-8be8-00144feab7de.html#axzz3VeSOjVUz