OpenOwnership

OpenOwnership is rated 3 out of 5 in the category public policy. Read and write reviews about OpenOwnership. OpenOwnership accelerates a norms change around corporate transparency by making it simple to publish and access high-quality data about who owns companies. Each year, billions of dollars in illicit funds – the fruits of crime, corruption or tax evasion – pass through anonymous shell companies. They are the most popular getaway vehicle for grand corruption by far, designed to allow their owners to remain hidden, escaping accountability and passing the costs of their illicit activities onto communities. The Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, high-profile corruption and tax avoidance scandals, and more have made these costs clearer than ever, and activated the global community to take action. In this context, OpenOwnership was established in 2016 by the world’s leading transparency organizations, including the World Wide Web Foundation, Transparency International, Global Witness, the ONE Campaign, the B Team, Open Contracting Partnership, and OpenCorporates. We provide two key technical tools: - the OpenOwnership Register, chiefly serving data users; and - the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard, chiefly serving data publishers. We also provide bespoke technical assistance to data publishers as part of our pilot program, with a view to developing transformational implementation guidance that significantly reduces the costs and barriers to publishing beneficial ownership data and puts user needs at the center of the process. Anonymously-owned companies are standing in the way of better, fairer markets and a more just society. OpenOwnership aims to make them obsolete.