Cayman Legislation Enhances and Consolidates Beneficial Ownership Rules

Following the recent removal of the Cayman Islands from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list, on 23 November 2023, the Cayman Islands passed the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Bill 2023.

On 23 November 2023, Parliament passed the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Bill (2023). It consolidates and enhances Cayman’s beneficial ownership rules in line with evolving global standards and consolidates the framework in a single act.

In addition to various updates and amendments, the new Act combines the beneficial ownership rules of the Companies Act, the Limited Liability Companies Act, and the Limited Liability Partnership Act in a single piece of legislation.

The Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act contains a clause that would enable Cabinet to make regulations to provide a limited form of public access to specified beneficial ownership information. Such regulations will have to be affirmed by Parliament and would be subject to prior public consultation.

However, although the Cayman Islands has previously made a commitment to introducing public registers of beneficial ownership information when this became a global standard, following the European Court of Justice issued a judgment on 22 November, 2022  which declared that public access to beneficial ownership information in Luxembourg and other EU member states was a disproportionate interference with the data protection and privacy rights guaranteed under the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, it now appears that a public register of beneficial ownerships may not be constitutionally sound.

If you require more information or need assistance, please contact your usual Stuarts attorney or email info@stuartslaw.com  for assistance.