Britain’s overseas territories failed to meet demands to make secretive company ownership information public on Thursday, pledging only to share it with law agencies trying to tackle corruption.
Overseas territories and crown dependencies have come under increasing pressure to reveal who is behind anonymously owned companies, with campaign groups saying such secrecy aides money laundering, tax evasion and corrupt diversion of public funds from developing economies.
Many of these territories, such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, have large financial services sectors because they levy low taxes and ownership of businesses lacks transparency.