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UK offshore havens have missed a deadline to publish their plans to improve corporate transparency, as MPs criticised the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in particular for launching a financial crime-fighting cartoon mascot before new legislation.
Jurisdictions including the BVI and Bermuda pledged last year to approve laws allowing access to company ownership data to those with a “legitimate interest” by April 2025, with implementation to follow in June.
But four British overseas territories – the BVI, Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks & Caicos – have failed to meet the deadline, the Guardian understands.
Any further delay is likely to fuel lingering concerns that UK offshore centres famed for their secrecy are dragging their feet on the UK’s transparency push, risking a clash between Westminster and the islands’ governments.
The BVI, named in multiple international investigations into alleged financial wrongdoing, has yet to introduce legislation to make its registers of beneficial ownership available to those with a legitimate interest in seeing the information.
In the meantime, the islands’ government has launched a cartoon bird, called Riley Right, whose stated mission is to encourage “responsibility, integrity, global awareness, honesty, and transparency”.
The bird, which appears to be a green parakeet wearing a suit, is part of a larger action plan published by the BVI’s National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Coordinating Council.
Joe Powell MP, who leads a UK cross-parliamentary group (APPG) examining financial crime and tax, said: “The British Virgin Islands have not only missed a key deadline they committed to at the joint ministerial council, but are now making a mockery of UK values by unveiling a cartoon mascot instead of taking real action against economic crime.
“If the BVI wishes to do business under the British flag and our rule of law, they must also uphold the standards of transparency and integrity we expect. This trivialisation of serious global financial threats undermines our fight against money laundering and kleptocracy – and it ultimately makes Britain less safe.
“It is deeply disappointing that the BVI and other overseas territories continue to delay the implementation of vital transparency measures. The UK must now look seriously at how to ensure these longstanding commitments are delivered.”
Granting access to ownership data to those with a “legitimate interest” is seen as a stepping stone to full publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership (PARBOs), a measure that ministers and campaign groups believe should become the global norm in an international crackdown on financial crime.
Phil Brickell, who is a member of the same APPG that Powell chairs, said: “While I welcome efforts to promote doing business the right way anywhere, surely time and money would be better spent lifting the veil of corporate secrecy in the British Virgin Islands which has been used by the world’s crooks and kleptocrats to clean and stash their dirty cash.”
A spokesperson for the BVI said Riley Right was a “simple and effective way to engage the wider community and enhance understanding”.
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“Dismissing or looking at it in isolation would present a highly misleading depiction of the scale of work we have undertaken. It does not negate or replace our broader international commitments in any way.”
Regarding open ownership registers, they added that the BVI government was “in the late stages of finalising its policy, which will be shared with UK government imminently and published in due course”.
A spokesperson for the Bermuda government said it was “in the process of taking the necessary steps, both legislative and operational, towards the implementation of a legitimate interest access beneficial ownership register”.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: “This government has made tackling illicit finance in the UK and our overseas territories and crown dependencies a priority since day one.
“All overseas territories are making progress and officials remain in contact with governments to ensure their proposals meet the requirements of the agreement in November.”
The Guardian has approached the governments of Anguilla and Turks & Caicos for comment.
