A globally recognised data standard

Open Ownership's Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) is the leading global open standard providing guidance for collecting, sharing and using high-quality data on beneficial ownership.

This page gathers mentions of and references to BODS by partners of Open Ownership and other international actors.

Mentions of BODS

“Interoperability, demonstrated by the seamless integration of beneficial ownership data into existing systems, not only meets global standards but also represents an important measure against corruption. Standardized data formats, such as the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS), play a pivotal role in ensuring consistency and facilitating data exchange across different registers.”

- Beneficial Ownership Registers: Implementation Insights and Emerging Frontiers, World Bank

“International organisations such as Open Ownership work to provide technical guidance to governments, civil society and legal entities on the implementation of beneficial ownership transparency frameworks, such as the collecting, sharing and using of high quality data on beneficial ownership in line with its Beneficial Ownership Data Standard.”

- Implementation of Beneficial Ownership Transparency in ASEAN States and Timor-Leste, UNODC

“Open Ownership developed an open standard providing guidance for collecting, sharing and using high-quality data on beneficial ownership (the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard), which has already been used by several jurisdictions when implementing beneficial registers. The current momentum could therefore be used to seek to ensure that beneficial ownership registers increasingly contain a commonly structured and electronically searchable data set.”

- OECD Report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors

Canada passed landmark legislation to create a national public beneficial ownership register. Bill C-42 received royal assent on 2 November 2023. It amends the Canada Business Corporations Act to require companies to make details about the real people who own or control corporations public. Read more.

“The government has publicly committed to adopting the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard which is an internationally accepted open standard which provides a consistent way to use, collect, exchange and publish beneficial ownership information on who owns and controls a company. Canada’s use will ensure that a registry can communicate with and speak the same technical language as beneficial ownership registries around the world as well as with the provincial and federal authorities”. - Senator Percy Downe, Canada

"What is really really crucial … is that we have adopted ... the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard. That is a standard across the countries to make sure our registry would be interoperable with the one in British Colombia, the one in Quebec. And also that the data we would be collecting would be consistent with the Financial Action Task Force and the G20. [...] The Beneficial Ownership Data Standard ... is really something that is going to help ... make sure that whoever has a registry in Canada will have [data] which is interoperable." - François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

“The Beneficial Ownership Data Standard provides a structured format and standard for how such data should be collected, shared and used. The standard captures information on identifiers and details for both individuals and corporates, types of levels of involvement in companies, provenance, jurisdiction, and historical and current information. The standard could help beneficial ownership information to be clearly identified and tracked over time”

- Project Aurora, Bank for International Settlements

"The UK government has committed to publishing beneficial ownership data in a structured, machine-readable format which meets the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard."

- UK Government Guidance: Collect, use and exchange beneficial ownership information

Nigeria is the first African country to collect beneficial ownership data in line with Open Ownership’s data standard, and has committed to making this information public. Nigeria’s updated Persons with Significant Control Register uses the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) to gather high-quality structured data on the beneficial owners of Nigerian companies.

- Nigeria: Persons with Significant Control Register

A collaboration between GLEIF and Open Ownership has resulted in Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) being integrated into datasets produced in line with the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard for the first time. The goal is to promote greater transparency in corporate ownership and control in support of safer, faster, and more efficient payment activities globally and a more secure financial landscape. It does this by enhancing the usability of beneficial ownership data, by allowing Open Ownership's database to be mapped more easily to other datasets globally through use of the LEI, in addition to Open Corporate IDs and national business identifiers already contained within the database.

The Transparency Fabric, a joint initiative between GLEIF, Open Ownership, and OpenSanctions, is a ground-breaking collaboration that delivers hope in the fight against financial crime by enabling critical data sets to be efficiently matched, particularly in the context of cross-border and instant payments. Accessible, clean, and transparent data is the foundation upon which we can combat illicit finance. The Transparency Fabric will simplify and reinforce the screening and tracing of players in money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions evasion.