Thomson Reuters has launched CLEAR Global Beneficial Ownership (GBO), a new product that aims to enable organisations to quickly understand the ownership and control of international corporate entities and help them find global business registry information.
The launch coincides with an increasing realisation that beneficial ownership concealed through shell companies or other structures is a root problem in most types of trade-based financial crime.
Hard-to-find businesses
Based on the firm’s existing CLEAR Adverse Media offering which provides access to live adverse media plus sanctions data, politically exposed persons, state-owned entities, and third-party data, CLEAR GBO was developed in collaboration with industry experts to bring transparency to data searches.
“CLEAR’s GBO add-on is a gamechanger in locating hard-to-find business and person information while simultaneously identifying potential concerns associated with them,” says general manager of corporate risk for Thomson Reuters, Chris Maguire.
Features and benefits
The offering aims to allow organisations to conduct due diligence on corporate entities; uncover shell corporations and criminal rings; understand supply chain risk, and protect reputational risk.
Thomson Reuters says it provides an effective way for organisations to mitigate risk by leveraging cutting-edge public records technology to obtain global business and ownership records, including source records that are instantly translated.
Trade-based financial crime
Shell companies routinely feature in cases of trade-based financial crime. A recent report commissioned by the US treasury department indicated that money laundering and terror finance risks associated with shell companies appear greater than those posed by art traders (Trade-based Financial Crime,16 March 2022).
Shell companies meanwhile are often used to ship wildlife or launder the proceeds of illegal wildlife trade, principal consultant in AML Compliance at FICO, Erik Stretz, has said in a blog.
More information on Thomson Reuters’ CLEAR GBO offering can be found here.
Erik Stretz’s blog, Illegal Wildlife Trade: What Banks Must Do, can be found here.
Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News
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