Australia Updates Plans for Unlisted Firms’ Ownership Disclosure

Australian authorities are moving closer to requiring private and closely held companies to disclose more about their ownership.

Australia’s Treasury updated its policy specifications Thursday on “beneficial ownership” disclosure for “unlisted” companies—those in private hands or public but not listed on an exchange. The government is already consulting on and moving toward finalizing reforms to ownership-disclosure requirements for listed, exchange-traded companies under the law.

• Disclosure of beneficial ownership and availability of that information via a registry “seeks to mitigate the obscurity” of such information that can disguise ownership and facilitate tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes, Treasury ...