Prime Minister David Cameron made the announcement during the opening session at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit in London on 31 October 2013.
The register will help citizens around the world to hold their governments to account by revealing who are the ultimate ‘actual’ owners of assets in the UK.
During his speech Prime Minister Cameron said: “we need to know who really owns and controls our companies”.
“Not just who owns them legally, but who really benefits financially from their existence,” he added.
At the EITI Global Conference in May this year, Prime Minister Cameron announced that the UK would implement the EITI.
The EITI Standard recommends that implementing countries maintain a publicly available register with actual owners, known as a register of beneficial owners.
Learn more about beneficial ownership in the blog post by Johnny West from OpenOil
