British media including national newspaper The Independent and leading business publication the Financial Times (FT) is reporting that Bermuda will not cooperate with a UK call to make the identities of company owners public. The FT story states that Bermuda, which it called “the richest of the UK’s overseas territories (OTs)”, has “snubbed David Cameron’s call to rip away the ‘cloak of secrecy’ by creating a public register of the ultimate owners of its companies.”

The Independent also said that Prime Minister Cameron’s campaign had been “snubbed” and described Bermuda as “the richest and most important of the UK’s overseas territories.” It added: “Bob Richards, Finance Minister of Bermuda, was in London this month, warning that the islands face a hostile economic climate, despite being host to many of the world’s insurance companies, and having a per-capita income of nearly £55,000 — one of the highest in the world.”

On Friday, Mr Richards stated in a press release that that Bermuda will reserve any commitment to uphold a UK model of beneficial ownership prior to international policy development in this arena. In addition, Bermuda will wait until the UK, US and Canada adopt public beneficial ownership registers.

The FT quoted Mr Richards, who said during a Bermuda Society dinner in London on November 13: “If we agree to a public register while our competitors around the world do not, we will put ourselves at a distinct disadvantage, severely damaging our economy.”

The story continued: “The offshore centre, the third largest reinsurance centre in the world, brushed off Mr Cameron’s entreaties to ‘set a new standard’ for transparency of company ownership, insisting it had ‘led the way’ on transparency for the last 75 years.”

The FT called Bermuda’s position “a setback” for Mr Cameron, and said: “ ... the Prime Minister ... has exhorted all the UK’s offshore finance centres to back the move, after making transparency a centrepiece of last year’s G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

Mr Cameron told MPs this week that the push to increase transparency was ‘vital in tackling the cancer of corruption that does so much to destroy countries and to increase risks to our own security’.”

The FT also reported that Mr Cameron told the Crown Dependencies and OTs in April: “The rest of the world is watching us closely and a public registry will demonstrate the sincerity of our commitment to improve corporate behaviour and set a new standard for transparency of company ownership.” The publication said the pressure on the UK’s offshore centres to reveal the names of beneficial owners is the latest in a series of global initiatives: “to crack down on tax evasion and financial crime in the wake of the global financial crisis.

“But it has met opposition from many financial centres that argue it would infringe their clients’ privacy and expose them to the risk of kidnapping and identity theft.

The Independent reported Denmark is creating a register, and the EU is debating the issue. The newspaper said the pressure on OTs “creates resentment, and fears that wealthy clients would be targeted by criminals if they were publicly identified.”

Mr Richards had told the Bermuda Society that authorities here already cooperate and share information with other countries.

He said: “It is important to note that Bermuda has never been a jurisdiction with bank secrecy laws, despite what you might read in the media. Nothing could be further from the truth. We do, however, respect the privacy accorded to people according to British Common Law.

“We have gone out of our way to cooperate with other countries’ tax authorities when it comes to sharing information on their taxpayers doing business in Bermuda. We have had a tax information exchange agreement with the US since 1986. We were one of the early adopters of FATCA.

“If you include the Multilateral Tax Convention of Tax Matters, which we signed last year, Bermuda has over 70 tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with other countries. And when we are asked for information by one of our TIEA partners we are prepared to use the courts to enforce the request.”

Mr Richards added: “In the past year, I have taken three recalcitrant entities to court for dragging their feet on TIEA requests and have won all three times. So we take our obligations seriously in this regard.”

He added: “One thing is certain; if you are a tax evader, a terrorist financier or a fraudster, don’t use Bermuda. We don’t want your business and you are not protected on our shores.”

Mr Richards also explained: “While we fully support the UK’s desire to uphold global standards of tax and transparency, the only jurisdiction that I know which actually presently has such a register is Bermuda. There have been legal requirements, under the Exchange Control Act and the Companies Act, to provide information on the beneficial ownership of companies registered in Bermuda since the 1940s.

“We share the information we have with international law enforcement when they are investigating specific cases. We do not share this information with Tom, Dick or Harry of the public.”