Beneficial ownership roadmap webinar 4: Data collection, timeliness and accessibility

This is the first webinar in our series on how to develop a beneficial ownership roadmap. For more guidance on beneficial ownership, visit our dedicated guidance page.

Beneficial roadmap webinar 4: Data collection, timeliness and accessibility

Tuesday 6 September 10 am Oslo time  | Duration: 1 hour

Facilitator: Sam Bartlett and Pablo Valverde

Part 1: Data collection procedures

Duration: 20 minutes

The EITI Standard foresees that beneficial ownership information should be collected through the EITI reporting process, or by government agencies involved in bidding for extractive licenses or company incorporation in the country.  The roadmap could include consultation activities aimed at identifying the most efficient and sustainable data collection approach. This may include distributing beneficial ownership declaration forms to all eligible companies, or incorporate beneficial ownership disclosure requirements in existing disclosure obligations upon bidding, in annual corporate filings etc.

In this webinar, participants will consider the following questions:  Which companies should be included in the scope of the beneficial ownership disclosures? Will it be necessary to phase in companies with time? What are the possible way(s) of collecting the beneficial ownership data?

Part 2: Data timeliness

Duration: 20 minutes

Company ownership may change frequently, sometimes several times during a financial year, and it is important to consider how to best keep the beneficial ownership information up to date.

In this webinar, participants will consider the following questions: When should beneficial ownership data be collected?  Should data collection happen annually ? Should beneficial ownership data be collected at a specific point in time, e.g. at the time of data collection for the EITI Report? As of 31 December each year? As part of other reporting obligations? Should companies be obliged to continuously disclose any changes in beneficial ownership ?

Part 3: Data accessibility

Duration: 20 minutes

Tables with beneficial ownership information locked in a pdf might be difficult to understand and interpret, in particular when there are multiple layers of companies between the company that operate in the extractive sector and the ultimate beneficial owner. It is recommended that the roadmap includes activities aimed at increasing data accessibility, for example by publication of data in electronic formats. This could also include activities aimed at considering establishing a public beneficial ownership register, ideally integrated in existing corporate or extractive license holder registers.

In this webinar, participants will consider questions related to data accessibility and visualization.