The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) and NGO Global Witness hosted a brainstorming seminar on Who Owns What (WOW)?- Improving Corporate Governance through the UK Beneficial Ownership Data Release Project.
The project leverages the UK Government’s historic announcement to publish a new central public register on who owns and controls companies in the UK. A first set of data was released on July 1, 2016.
LSE IGA has created a unique platform of stakeholders for joint analysis/research on the new data set. A first brainstorming session gathered LSE faculty, Global Witness, other NGOs Transparency International, OpenCorporates, One, and representatives of the UK government, the Cabinet Office, and an IFI, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Global Wittness and OpenCorporates made presentations that was followed by a lively brainstorming session. See the two NGOs’ blogs https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/first-look-uk-beneficial-ownership-data/ and https://blog.opencorporates.com/2016/07/06/uk-beneficial-ownership-information-now-in-opencorporates/.
This project will be at the centre of IGA’s global governance initiative, under the co-leadership of IGA Director Erik Berglof and Vince Cable, former Secretary of State for Business, who originated this project in 2013 while in office, and now Visiting Professor at the IGA.