Trusts and beneficial ownership: Guidance for data collection and sharing
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Summary
Information about trusts is a critical element of beneficial ownership transparency, as set out in Open Ownership’s briefing Coverage of corporate vehicles in beneficial ownership disclosure regimes. This is because within beneficial ownership networks trusts can own assets, including stakes in legal entities, and legal entities can be party to a trust.
Establishing trust registries is the best way for governments to facilitate the flow of relevant information, and to assess and discourage the use of trusts for illegal purposes. In this guidance, Open Ownership emphasises the need for user-friendly data collection forms which support the filing of adequate, accurate, and up-to-date information on parties to trusts, whether they are natural persons or legal entities.
