There is ongoing political pressure but no imminent legal change. The UK government continues to press the Cayman Islands and the other Overseas Territories to adopt fully public beneficial ownership registers. Most recently, the UK reiterated that position at the Joint Ministerial Council. Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands has instead adopted a ‘legitimate interest’ access model that follows the approach most FATF-aligned jurisdictions settled on after the EU’s Court of Justice found fully public registers create a disproportionate interference with privacy. Any move to full public access would likely require new Cayman Islands legislation or a UK Order in Council, and could face a constitutional challenge under the Cayman Islands Constitution’s own privacy protections.
Where the pressure comes from
Since 2018, the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act has given the UK government a reserve power to require Overseas Territories, including the Cayman Islands, to introduce publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers by Order in Council if they do not do so themselves. The UK has repeated its preference for full public registers at successive Joint Ministerial Council meetings with Overseas Territory governments, even after the Cayman Islands introduced its ‘legitimate interest’ access model.
Why Cayman moved to ‘legitimate interest’ access instead
In November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Sovim SA v Luxembourg Business Registers that fully public beneficial ownership registers constituted a disproportionate interference with the right to privacy under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This prompted EU member states to roll back or restrict their own public registers. The Cayman Islands’ Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act, 2023 and its access rules were designed around the narrower ‘legitimate interest’ standard that emerged from that case and is now reflected in evolving FATF guidance.
A constitutional counterweight
Section 9 of the Cayman Islands Constitution protects a right to private life broadly analogous to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This gives the jurisdiction a domestic legal basis – similar to the one that succeeded in Sovim – to resist a move to unrestricted public access if it is not proportionate to a legitimate aim.
What would have to happen for the position to change
A shift to full public access would require either new Cayman Islands primary legislation, agreed with the Cayman Islands Government, or the UK exercising its Order in Council power over the objection of Cayman Islands authorities. This is a step it has so far held in reserve rather than used. Businesses structuring through the Cayman Islands should treat the current restricted-access model as durable but monitor developments, since the underlying political pressure has not gone away.
For now, the practical planning point is that the current regime, not a future public register, is what governs disclosure, and any access restriction in place today would need to be reassessed if the legal landscape shifts.
Related questions: Can beneficial ownership information in the Cayman Islands be kept private from the public? | How can a Cayman Islands company restrict public access to its beneficial ownership information?
wb.group monitors developments in the Cayman Islands beneficial ownership regime on behalf of its clients.
FAQs
There is ongoing political pressure but no imminent legal change. The UK government continues to press the Cayman Islands and the other Overseas Territories to adopt fully public beneficial ownership registers. Most recently, the UK reiterated that position at the Joint Ministerial Council. Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands has instead adopted a ‘legitimate interest’ access model that follows the approach most FATF-aligned jurisdictions settled on after the EU’s Court of Justice found fully public registers create a disproportionate interference with privacy. Any move to full public access would likely require new Cayman Islands legislation or a UK Order in Council, and could face a constitutional challenge under the Cayman Islands Constitution’s own privacy protections.
Not currently. The Cayman Islands has adopted a ‘legitimate interest’ access model rather than a fully public register, though the UK government continues to press for full public access at forums such as the Joint Ministerial Council.
The UK holds a reserve power under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 to require this by Order in Council, but it has not exercised that power against the Cayman Islands, which has instead adopted its own access model.
Largely because of the EU Court of Justice’s 2022 ruling in Sovim SA v Luxembourg Business Registers, which found fully public beneficial ownership registers to be a disproportionate interference with privacy – a standard now reflected in the Cayman Islands’ ‘legitimate interest’ access approach.
Section 9 of the Cayman Islands Constitution protects a right to private life similar to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which could provide a domestic legal basis to challenge a disproportionate move to full public access.