Prime minister says he is still not happy with way some British overseas territories are resisting financial transparency

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

David Cameron has accused some British overseas territories and crown dependencies of not doing enough to tackle tax evasion and money laundering.

The prime minister took the offshore financial centres to task on Wednesday during a trip to the Caribbean and said not enough progress was being made towards transparency.



Over the past few years, Cameron has repeatedly urged territories such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands to introduce central public registers of company ownership, thereby allowing law enforcement agencies to trace criminals behind firms that are currently anonymous.

This has met fierce resistance among some territories and Grant Shapps, a Foreign Office minister, appeared to backtrack on the UK’s requests for a central register during a trip to the Cayman Islands over the summer.

UK seems to relax pressure on Caymans over company register Read more

However, Cameron told the Jamaican parliament that he was still not happy with the way some territories were resisting financial transparency, without naming any.

He said: “If we’re to beat corruption, we need transparency. I’ve taken the lead by pledging much more transparency over property and company ownership in the UK so that terrorists, tax-avoiders, money launderers and criminals have nowhere to hide their ill-gotten gains.

“Some of the British crown dependences and overseas territories are making progress in this direction. Others, frankly, are not moving anywhere near fast enough.

“I say to them all today, including those in this region, if we want to break the business model of stealing money and hiding it in places where it can’t be seen: transparency is the answer.”

The prime minister promised to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership in the UK and wrote to the overseas territories last year urging them to consider doing the same, arguing that public access to a central list was “vital to meeting the urgent challenges of illicit finance and tax evasion”.

Before the election, Labour went a step further than the government in promising to force overseas territories and crown dependencies to disclose beneficial ownership, even though they are independent.