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<p>The international standards on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing,
including transparency of legal persons, are set by the Financial Action Task Force.
The British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are members of the Caribbean Financial
Action Task Force and are subject to mutual evaluations of their AML/CTF regime through
this body.</p><p>At the December 2014 Joint Ministerial Council, the UK and the Overseas
Territories committed to continue to work together in raising international standards
to tackle money laundering, tax evasion, illicit finance and corruption, leading by
example given the importance of our financial centres to the international financial
system. In March, the Minister for the Overseas Territories and I wrote to the Premiers
of the BVI and Cayman Islands asking them to set out plans and a timetable for the
implementation of central registers of company beneficial ownership, or similarly
effective systems, by the November Joint Ministerial Council.</p><p>Any system should
meet the following three criteria: UK and domestic law enforcement and tax authorities
must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction,
subject to relevant safeguards; these competent authorities should be able to quickly
identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in, without
needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and companies or their beneficial
owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is under way.</p><p>The
UK Government continues to engage actively with the BVI and Cayman Islands to emphasize
the importance of this agenda and to offer any technical support that might be required.</p>
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