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 Prime Minister David Cameron announced the measure at the start of a
global anti-corruption summit he is hosting in London, but critics
said the proposed registers may not make a meaningful impact unless
tax havens ended secrecy as well.
The build-up to the event was marred by Cameron being caught on
camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan, which are both taking
part, as "fantastically corrupt", but he later said that the leaders
of both countries were tackling the problem.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing a plenary session at
the summit, said that corruption was as much of an enemy as some of
the extremists Washington was fighting.
"It is a contributor to terrorism in many different ways and the
extremism that we see in the world today comes to no small degree
from the utter exasperation that people have with the sense that the
system is rigged," Kerry said.
"We see this anger manifesting itself in different forms in
elections around the world, including ours," he said, alluding to
the unexpected success of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat
Bernie Sanders in the U.S. presidential primaries.
France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan would join Britain
in launching public registers of true company ownership, Cameron's
office said. Kerry said the United States had already announced
steps to improve transparency on business ownership.
More could follow in the course of the summit.
Cameron's office said that any foreign company that owns a property
in Britain or wants to buy one or to bid for a central government
contract would have to join the new register.
The aim is to expose those who hide behind obscure shell companies
to own properties, a particularly acute problem in London which has
been hit by repeated scandals involving luxury homes owned by
corrupt foreign politicians and businesspeople.
PANAMA PAPERS
Some critics said the impact of the registers might be limited
unless tax havens were persuaded or forced to also open up about who
owned offshore-registered companies.
"I can't tell until I've seen the detail whether this is a PR stunt
or a serious policy which will reveal the true ownership of
properties here in the UK," said Margaret Hodge, a member of
parliament from the opposition Labour Party who specializes in these
issues.
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The release of the "Panama Papers", leaked documents from law firm
Mossack Fonseca, put tax avoidance at the top of the global agenda
by showing the extent to which tax havens were used by politicians
and businesspeople from around the world.
Anti-corruption protesters who gathered close to the summit venue,
some dressed as bankers with bowler hats reclining on deck chairs as
they fanned themselves with banknotes, said what was needed was an
outright abolition of tax havens.
"We just think this has got to the point where ending tax havens has
to be done. They serve no useful economic purpose," said Sally
Copley, head of UK campaigns at charity Oxfam.
The British Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory that the
Panama Papers suggested was home to more than half of the 200,000
companies set up by Mossack Fonseca, was not represented at the
London summit.
Britain also seized the opportunity of the summit to bring forward
plans to introduce a criminal offense for companies that fail to
stop employees facilitating tax evasion, pledging to introduce
legislation to that effect this year.
John Milner, head of business crime and fraud at law firm IBB
Solicitors, said this was a step in the right direction in tackling
what he called Britain's "unenviable and growing reputation as a
soft touch for laundering dirty money".
However, he expressed doubts as to whether the already stretched
white collar crime investigating body would be able to enforce the
new rule.
(Additional reporting by Georgina Cooper and Elizabeth Piper;
editing by Ralph Boulton)
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