Regional Peer Exchange in SEA: Advancing Anti-Corruption Efforts through Beneficial Ownership Transparency
Regional Peer Exchange Visual Note-taking Document
Beneficial Ownership (BO)
A beneficial owner refers to the natural person(s) who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity. It also includes those natural persons who exercise ultimate effective control over a legal person.
Reference to “ultimately owns or controls” and “ultimate effective control” refer to situations in which ownership/control is exercised through a chain of ownership or by means of control other than direct control.
About the Regional Peer Exchange
Objectives
- Empower participants to address BOT implementation challenges
- Leverage regional expertise and strengthen regional collaboration
- Share insights concerning good practices and innovative approaches
- Draw on experiences from diverse sectors and jurisdictions
- Inform a 2025 global meeting on BOT
Topics
Design
- Foundational principles for designing BOT legislation
- Developing verification mechanisms
- Thinking through data systems and interoperability
Implementation
- National approaches to implementing BOT
- Interlinkages between BOT, anti corruption and asset recovery
- Understanding existing challenges and exploring good practices
- Exploring use cases for BO data
Regional sharing
- Regional analysis of existing BO approaches and frameworks
- Advancing ways to enhance the sharing and use of BO data across South-East Asia
60 participants from Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, and Mongolia
75% of participants responded that the Regional Peer Exchange exceeded their expectations
70% of participants responded that the Regional Peer Exchange was very effective in enhancing their understanding of BOT
| I AM... | I WANT TO USE BO DATA TO... | SO THAT... |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant registrar of companies | Identify the ultimate owner of a company | The registry can be trusted and reliable and help other enforcement agencies undertake investigations |
| Investigator | Use BOT to identify hidden connections between individuals and companies – to uncover illegal financial activities and improve corruption investigations | I can trace and seize proceeds of corruption for asset recovery |
| Procurement agency | Ensure eligibility of national and foreign suppliers | I can help prevent corruption and fraud by detecting conflicts of interest and signs of collusion and bid-rigging |
| Lawyer | Advise my client on a partnership agreement with a foreign company | I can ensure my client is aware of the true nature of the entity they want to work with |
| Environmentalist | Help hold corporations accountable for potential deforestation activities – to protect remaining natural forests and wildlife | The remaining natural forests are protected and wildlife in its concession conserved |
Challenge: Limited awareness and compliance
- Lack of awareness among corporations of BO requirements
- Lack of compliance in adhering to BO requirements
- Limited awareness and use of existing BO information
Solution: Empowerment and awareness-raising
We must understand the complexities of beneficial ownership transparency and facilitate an enabling environment for reforms.
- Bring stakeholders with us on the design and implementation journey and ensure that we’re aligned with national policy goals
- Provide awareness-raising and training programmes for those required to declare BO information, for those who collect and maintain it, and for those who wish to use it
- Develop guidelines and manuals to help institutionalize the use of BO information
Challenge: Limited means to access, collect, verify and update BO data
- Limited verification measures, including for information regarding foreign natural and legal persons and historical data
- Concerns about data privacy and cyber security
- Lack of infrastructure
- Reliance on self-declarations
Solution: Strengthen legal, institutional and operational frameworks, including data systems
We want to be leaders in designing, implementing and using beneficial ownership data.
- Build knowledge and competency regarding verification measures, including how technology can help verify BO data
- Review and enhance legal and regulatory frameworks on BOT, including in areas like data-sharing, data privacy, verification and sanctions
- Build, manage and enhance BO registries
- Increase digitalization and cross-checking across databases to assist in monitoring and detecting discrepancies and identifying potential conflicts of interest
Challenge: Limited integration of BO data across the region
- Difficulty in obtaining BO data at the national, regional and international levels
- Variations in legal frameworks, types of data collected, data quality and verification standards
- No existing regional standard on the collection of BO data
Solution: Strengthen BOT collaboration
We want stronger coordination and regional approaches to implementing beneficial ownership transparency
- Understand user needs and ensure that the information collected and maintained is helpful for data users
- Implement standardized data to help ensure interoperability between different data sets both nationally and regionally
- Design mechanisms to better facilitate and streamline information-sharing, including through the use of regional agreements or a dedicated information exchange platform
- Continue dialogue through recurring regional events, exchanges and technical forums
