Following the European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgment on the Beneficial Owner Registers decision that open public access to the beneficial owner registers of EU member state companies is no longer lawful. BVI News, an online news website from the BVI, has stated that it requested comment from the BVI Governor’s Office on the judgment.

According to BVI News a spokesperson for the BVI Governor’s Office responded that “The Governor’s Office will work with colleagues both in the territory and the UK to understand the implications of the recent judgement by the ECJ and will continue to support work towards publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership.”

Under the BVI Constitution the Governor, currently HE Governor John Rankin, is appointed by the UK government as a representative of the Crown, the head of state, in the Territory. In practical terms the Governor works cooperatively between the locally elected government in the BVI and the UK.

Our recent blog post on the ECJ ruling can be found here.