Canada must invest significantly in resourcing the verification processes connected to the establishment of new and existing companies, otherwise the noble intentions of its amended Canada Business Corporations Act will be seriously undermined, says Martin Kenney.
In his latest op-ed, for the Toronto Star, our Head of Firm Martin Kenney opines on the likely effectiveness (or otherwise) of the USA’s Corporate Transparency Act, which will create a beneficial ownership database and require the filing of beneficial information from 1st January next year.
Martin Kenney welcomes a decision by the European Court of Justice that open beneficial ownership registers – sometimes called open UBO registers – are incompatible with the right to privacy. Unlimited transparency isn’t necessarily effective in the battle against economic criminals, he warns.
Martin Kenney told the Mail on Sunday newspaper in the UK that public registers are an affront to the right to privacy and also rarely have the intended effect of increasing effective enforcement.
The new U.S. Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which passed in late 2020 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, makes seemingly significant changes to the information required when incorporating a company in the U.S.
OPINION: If we’re going to have public company registers, then make them accessible by a realistic fee – and bolster their robustness – writes Martin Kenney for ACFE Insights.
A system of controlled transparency is far more effective as a tool for battling corruption than a completely unlimited system of transparency.
A response to Transparency International and Laure Brillaud’s criticism of Martin Kenney’s recent EU Observer piece about the flaws in public UBO registers.
In Washington, Congress is struggling with a new law over disclosure rules proposed for a public ownership register of companies.
The FBI has come out strongly in favour of the Cayman Islands’ ability to provide law enforcement with verified information about companies’ ‘ultimate beneficial owners’.
