Statement in Response to Joint Ministerial Council Communique
**For immediate release**
Leading anti-corruption and tax justice experts warn that continued delays on offshore transparency is undermining the UK’s credibility in tackling illicit finance.
Almost seven years after the UK Parliament required the Overseas Territories to crack down on illicit finance and introduce public registers revealing the true owners of companies, leaders from the jurisdictions met again in London last week. But this long-awaited annual event delivered little concrete progress and failed to reaffirm that public registers remain the global standard for transparency.
Clear commitments, timelines, and accountability mechanisms are crucial to securing progress, yet this three-day dialogue produced none. If the UK is to demonstrate real leadership on illicit finance, its Overseas Territories need to deliver better and faster ahead of its international summit next year. The planned meeting between the Government and representatives from the Overseas Territories early in the new year presents an important opportunity to set firmer expectations about the direction of travel.
Major offshore financial centres including the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Anguilla have now missed a fourth implementation deadline, while existing frameworks in Cayman and Turks and Caicos fall short of promises made at previous Joint Ministerial Councils. Overall, registers in most offshore financial centres remain largely closed, with the BVI and Bermuda receiving an ‘F’ on the accessibility of the data in a recent assessment.
Corporate secrecy causes real harm – to communities, democracies and economies. Companies based in these jurisdictions have been linked to billions in lost tax revenue, impacting funding for schools and hospitals, as well as enabling corruption and organised crime such as human rights abuses, drug trafficking, and climate destruction. These practices undermine trust in the UK’s financial system and damage the long-term economic interests of the Overseas Territories themselves.
It is highly disappointing that the communique does not restate that fully public registers must remain the ultimate goal for the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and the global norm the UK should continue to champion. Public access registers are the most fair, straightforward, cost-effective way to ensure that users can access the data and carry out proactive investigations, contributing to the global fight against corruption. A legitimate-interest model is, at best, an interim step, and only if it provides meaningful access for journalists, civil society, academics, and others tackling illicit activity. It cannot be used to justify backtracking on earlier commitments.
If these jurisdictions continue to defy the will of Parliament, the Government should also be prepared to escalate its response. All legal and constitutional options must remain on the table to ensure these commitments are delivered in full and without further delay.
Signed,
BOND
Fair Tax Foundation
International Lawyers Project
Professor Nicholas Ryder, Cardiff University
Spotlight on Corruption
State Capture Accountability Project
Tax Justice UK
TaxWatch UK
The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition
Transparency International UK
Notes to editors
A recent report assessing existing frameworks found that registries in Cayman, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda largely remain closed, and that these territories have fallen short of their promises to allow journalists, civil society and others combatting illicit finance to have meaningful access to beneficial ownership data.
The assessment examined 92 criteria across two areas: the quality of each territory’s beneficial ownership framework and the accessibility of their register. Montserrat achieved an ‘A’ grade in both categories, making it the strongest performer in this first release. BVI and Bermuda both received an ‘F’ for accessibility of their register.
Previous Transparency International UK research found that over 90% of companies from UK Overseas Territories involved in corruption and money laundering cases were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The total amount diverted through Overseas Territories amounted to £250 billion from 79 countries.
In June 2024, the Financial Action Task Force grey-listed the British Virgin Islands for deficiencies including authorities' failure to recognise the role BVI companies play in economic crime beyond its borders.
Research commissioned by the UK Government estimated that corporate transparency reforms in the UK produced data worth up to £3 billion to users, with records accessed over 6 billion times in one year.
The 2018 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act required UK Overseas Territories to establish public registers of beneficial ownership.
At the November 2024 Joint Ministerial Council, Leaders and representatives from Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands agreed to implement ‘Legitimate Interest Access Registers of Beneficial Ownership with the maximum possible degree of access and transparency’, which they committed to implement by June 2025 or earlier. The UK Government also re-stated its ambition that Publicly Accessible Registers of Beneficial Ownership (PARBOs) become a global norm and its expectation that Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies
The annual Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) brings together political leaders from the Overseas Territories and UK Ministers to discuss issues ranging from governance to security, growth and the environment. This year, the JMC was held in London from 24 to 27 November and attended by Stephen Doughty, the Minister in charge of the Overseas Territories.