MKS welcomes major reforms to how the UK polices and prevents fraud and corruption under sweeping new measures designed to tackle economic crime, but warns the new measures must be properly resourced and implemented.
Martin Kenney was asked by the Daily Mail newspaper to comment on pressure being brought to bear on the UK government by some UK politicians, who want to tighten regulations and prevent overseas owners of UK property from hiding ultimate ownership details using trusts.
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.
A system of controlled transparency is far more effective as a tool for battling corruption than a completely unlimited system of transparency.
