The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering group called on members last week to boost transparency efforts to identify ultimate beneficial owners of companies and to ensure that the information is readily available to law enforcement officials.
The Council’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, known as Moneyval, said in its annual report that identifying the true owners of complex corporate structures is one of the biggest problems in the fight against money laundering. The 80-page annual report, outlining the group’s activities in 2013 and recommendations, was released last week.
