As part of the U.K.’s push toward greater transparency on beneficial ownership, the Cayman Islands government has confirmed that it will create a centralized beneficial ownership platform to provide local competent authorities and designated U.K. law enforcement authorities with timely access to accurate information. A target date of June 2017 has been set for implementing the new platform.
The U.K. initially requested that Cayman establish a publicly-searchable central register, but after a lengthy standoff, the compromise of the centralized portal proposed by Cayman was accepted by the U.K. as a “similarly effective” system. Essentially, licensed and regulated corporate service providers will continue to gather, verify and record beneficial ownership information. The new platform will enable authorities to access information through a centralized platform operator within 24 hours, rather than having to deal with separate corporate service providers individually.
