Open Ownership (OO)

Drive the global shift towards transparency and accountability in corporate ownership and control

Open Ownership (OO) believes that information on the true owners of companies is an essential part of a well-functioning economy and society. Public registers of beneficial owners give access to high-quality data about who owns, controls, and benefits from companies and their profits. This information, known as beneficial ownership transparency (BOT), helps tackle corruption, reduce investment risk, and improve national and global governance.

The initiative’s main goals are to:

• Enable accurate and complete beneficial ownership disclosures;

• Support governments to make high-quality data shareable, and educate others on how to use it;

• Reduce corruption and tax evasion, give fair development opportunities and build societal trust.

OO helps countries generate high quality data on company ownership that complies with international standards and meets the needs of data users across government, civil society, and the private sector. OO supports people and organisations to use this data to build trust as well as reducing corruption and tax evasion.

Since 2017, OO has worked with almost 40 countries to advance implementation of beneficial ownership reforms, as well as supporting the creation of over 15 new central and sectoral registers.

OO has developed the world’s leading data standard for beneficial ownership information, co-founded the international Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group, and built the world’s first transnational public beneficial ownership register.

OO works on three key areas:

• Technical assistance to implement beneficial ownership transparency;
• Technology and capacity to use beneficial ownership data;
• Research to inform policy.