Transparency of beneficial ownership

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) consulted on measures to improve the transparency of beneficial ownership of companies and limited partnerships in New Zealand in 2018. This included exploring the establishment of a public register of beneficial ownership information. These matters have been combined with another initiative considering the introduction of director identification numbers. We understand that MBIE is now working on how this will operate in practice.

In April 2021, the Financial Action Task Force released its Mutual Evaluation Report of New Zealand’s anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system, setting out the strengths and weaknesses of the New Zealand system. One of the priority actions given for New Zealand was to improve the availability of accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information on legal persons and domestic trusts.

For more see:

our submission on increasing the transparency of beneficial ownership
Our update on director identification numbers and residential addresses