✒ The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on 22nd November that open access to the ultimate-beneficial ownership (UBO) registries violate owners’ right to privacy and thus struck down an EU directive that opened them to the public.
This will have impacts as to how money-laundering cases are investigated, how international sanctions are to be enforced, and tax evasion are to be combated.
The European Commission and EU finance ministers are studying the ECJ decision and working on new rules. The author suggests that any new system will probably let banks use UBO registries, and the court says governments should consider granting access to journalists and civil-society organisations.