OpenOwnership is pleased to submit this comment to The Treasury of the Australian Government, in response to its consultation paper titled “Increasing Transparency of the Beneficial Ownership of Companies”.

OpenOwnership is a new project to build an open data register of global beneficial ownership information in the public interest. A networked problem such as grand corruption or the abuse of anonymous companies requires a networked solution; by linking data from worldwide corporate registries and other sources, and by allowing a clear, consistent mechanism for data collection, OpenOwnership both provides that solution, and helps sets global norms around transparency. The project is driven by the leading transparency NGOs: Transparency International, Global Witness, ONE, the Web Foundation, Open Contracting Partnership, and the B Team, along with OpenCorporates, and is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development…