Stephen Abbott Pugh
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stephenabbottpugh.bsky.social
Stephen Abbott Pugh
@stephenabbottpugh.bsky.social
Beneficial ownership transparency, data and standardisation expert. Offering technical guidance and consultancy support https://www.beneficialownership.co.uk/

Talk to me about the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard https://standard.openownership.org/
Great to see Ontario committing to creating a beneficial ownership register and aligning with Canada's federal practices after years of fantastic advocacy by the #EndSnowWashing coalition

budget.ontario.ca/2025/fallsta...

#beneficialownership
November 7, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Yesterday the French Senate adopted a anti-financial crime bill to crack down on those abusing shell companies in France by giving officials more powers to report suspicious behaviour and creating a national register of fictitious identities and nominee front men www.senat.fr/dossier-legi...
November 6, 2025 at 9:27 AM
See how the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) sits at the centre of a global network of mapped identifiers using a Jupyter Notebook created by the GLEIF and Open Data Services teams github.com/Global-Open-...

Learn more: gleif.org/en/newsroom/...

#LEI #opendata #openstandards #datastandards
November 5, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Beneficial ownership registers in the Overseas Territories "should offer ... access to a broad range of legitimate users, supporting proactive investigations, deterring concealment of illicit gains + promoting maximum transparency" - Stephen Doughty questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...
November 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
"Minor gaps in the regime for the transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons": questionable decision by CFATF to re-rate British Virgin Islands as largely compliant with FATF's Recommendation 24 before many promised changes implemented 🤨
bitrix24public.com/cfatf.bitrix...
November 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The Government of Jersey has launched a public consultation on extending access to its central beneficial ownership register to people with legitimate interest.

Submissions due by 30 January 2026.

Full details: www.gov.je/Government/C...

#beneficialownership #legitimateinterest
November 3, 2025 at 11:03 AM
"Collect data and information in a consistent way in all Member States.... from independent and reliable sources" 👏👏👏

Draft customer due diligence and beneficial ownership technical standards for the European Union
www.eba.europa.eu/publications...

#AML #UBO #AMLA #beneficialownership
November 3, 2025 at 10:44 AM
The Seychelles has issued a circular reminding all legal persons and legal arrangements registered there that beneficial ownership information needs to be verified by the actual beneficial owners themselves - and not by professional intermediaries

fsaseychelles.sc/component/ed...
October 29, 2025 at 4:31 PM
This is where the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard offers unique value.

It is the world's leading open standard for exchanging information on how companies, trusts and other types of entities/arrangements are owned or controlled www.beneficialownership.co.uk/data-standard

#beneficialownership
October 27, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa have all been removed from the Financial Action Task Force's grey list after improving their AML/CFT regimes including collecting and using beneficial ownership information

www.fatf-gafi.org/en/publicati...
October 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
This work was developed through the Global Open Data Integration Network, a collaborative effort to enhance global data interoperability and accessibility by connecting organisations that publish open data, create open data standards and use the LEI godin.gleif.org

#GODIN #opendata #LEI
October 23, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Demonstrating how the effects of sanctions cascade through ownership networks using open data, open standards and AI, thanks to GLEIF, @opensanctions.org and @openownership.bsky.social

transparencyfabric.gleif.org

🧵

#LEI #opendata #sanctions #openstandards #beneficialownership #UBO #GODIN
October 23, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Colombian NGO Instituto Anticorrupción sets out recommendations for improving Colombia's beneficial ownership register including making some data public and introducing legitimate interest access to help in the fight against corruption/money laundering www.estudiosanticorrupcion.org/wp-content/u...
October 21, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Norway unveiled its national beneficial ownership register in October 2024 and offers API access to those with legitimate interest. But Tax Justice Norge feels the government could do more to help data users 🧵

www.brreg.no/bruke-data-f...

#beneficialownership #legitimateinterest #UBO
October 21, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Portugal is shifting to legitimate interest access to its beneficial ownership register, following the final approval of legislative amendments by the country's president on 17 October 2025

www.presidencia.pt/en/news-agen...

#beneficialownership #legitimateinterest #UBO #AMLD6 #6AMLD
October 19, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Building a transparent future with open data, AI and the Legal Entity Identifier www.gleif.org/en/newsroom/...

How the Global Open Data Integration Network will help overcome the challenge of data fragmentation in cross-border finance godin.gleif.org

#AML #LEI #openstandards #opendata #UBO #GODIN
October 17, 2025 at 8:34 AM
The @oecd-ocde.bsky.social has developed a voluntary framework to promote the automatic exchange of information on real estate including beneficial ownership information where properties are owned by companies or trusts

www.oecd.org/content/dam/...

#AEOI #beneficialownership
October 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
The French Senate is soon to consider a draft anti-money laundering bill which would let authorities be more proactive in their use of data on how companies are owned/controlled

www.senat.fr/dossier-legi...

#beneficialownership #UBO #AML
October 15, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Exciting to see another use of @openownership.bsky.social's Beneficial Ownership Data Standard visualisation library in the wild www.openownership.org/en/publicati...

HT @fostermoore.bsky.social

#beneficialownership #openstandards
October 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Good to be watching a live demo of Bermuda's new beneficial ownership register by the Registrar of Companies team 👀 www.gov.bm/articles/imp...
October 15, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Australia is moving forwards with plans to create a public beneficial ownership register to show who really owns or controls companies as well as collecting information on trusts ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/an...

#beneficialownership
October 15, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Yes. This will mean officially revoking access for the general public in favour of more limited access to authorities. But it also offers access to people seen to have 'legitimate interest' such as journalists, civil society organisations and others.

Full list: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...
October 14, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Italy has begun the process of officially changing its beneficial ownership regime to limit access to competent authorities, obliged entities and those people or entities with legitimate interest www.governo.it/it/articolo/...
October 14, 2025 at 12:43 PM
"As of June 2025, the EU currently hosts 47,732 companies with more than 40% Russian ownership, an increase of almost 560 companies since July 2024" - Moody's data uncovering how Russian ownership of EU entities is evolving over time www.moodys.com/web/en/us/in... #beneficialownership
October 9, 2025 at 11:19 AM
"In an increasingly interconnected global economy, the ability for organisations to trust and use data effectively is the foundation for innovation, growth, and competitiveness"

www.gleif.org/en/newsroom/...

#LEI #openstandards #opendata #GODIN #interoperability #datastandards
October 8, 2025 at 10:30 AM