Beneficial Ownership

Beneficial Ownership for Minimising Risk

We are proud of our global leadership in tax cooperation, combatting money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and in providing appropriate and effective transparency.

A centralised and secure beneficial ownership register is intended to minimise the risk of financial institutions being used for money laundering, terrorist financing, economic crime and other illegal activities.

Beneficial ownership registers aid foreign tax authorities by making it more challenging for individuals to use structures across countries to secretly hold income and evade taxes. Established in 1989, Jersey’s beneficial ownership register is one of the earliest known.

An effective and fit-for-purpose central register of company beneficial ownership is a specific recommendation from the OECD’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In July 2024, MONEYVAL’s Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report praised Jersey’s approach for the accuracy and transparency of its beneficial ownership information for legal persons and arrangements.

Jersey’s Current Position on Beneficial Ownership

International standards on collecting information on the beneficial owners are constantly changing and Jersey has committed to remaining aligned with international standards in this area as they develop.

In 2023, the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) made a joint commitment regarding registers of beneficial ownership.

Although not publicly available, a comprehensive register of beneficial owners, in addition to a public-facing significant persons register, are managed by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and ensure that Jersey has reliable information to share, as part of an effective information exchange regime. Jersey’s ‘Exchange of Notes’ Agreement with the UK, for example, enables rapid sharing of beneficial ownership information in as little as one hour.

Following legislative updates in Jersey approved by the States Assembly on 11 September 2024, and in accordance with FATF recommendations, access to beneficial ownership information is now available to persons who are obliged to perform customer due diligence (CDD) to support them in this process – this is often referred to as ‘obliged entity access‘.

These obliged entities are able to access certain personal information held by the Registry relating to beneficial owners and controllers of Jersey entities strictly for the purposes of fulfilling their CDD obligations pursuant to the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008 (MLO). Further information and guidance on this is available from the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

Future Developments in Beneficial Ownership

In due course, and subject to necessary approvals in Jersey’s legislature, access is expected to be extended to people with legitimate interests across all Crown Dependencies, in line with international obligations. These changes to legislation are expected to recognise that there is a crucial balance to strike between protecting human rights and combatting financial crime.