Companies House receives international recognition for delivering a new property registration abroad

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A new registry aimed at preventing criminals from using UK property to launder money, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, has received enthusiastic backing from a global business registry network.

The Corporate Registry Forum (CRF) recognized Companies House with an Innovation (Excellence) Award for its implementation of the Foreign Entity Registry. Overseas entities wishing to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK must register with the Companies Register and declare who their beneficial owners or administrative officers are.

The registry was delivered in just 109 business days and now has more than 27,000 registered foreign entities, with the registry itself being searched 405,178* times. Information on beneficial ownership has been accessed 89,574* times.

The CRF is a leading international association of company registrations from more than 50 countries around the world. Members meet regularly to share ideas, compare performance, and access specialized knowledge and experience.

A panel of CRF judges said the registry introduction was “a true display of agile innovation” and praised it as the “most outstanding” project among the entries for the award. The award will be presented to Companies House officials at a ceremony at the CRF conference in October.

The chair of the 2023 CRF Innovation Award judging panel, Ms. Chin Li Fen, said:

On behalf of the Corporate Registry Forum, my warmest congratulations to Companies House for being awarded the CRF Innovation (Excellence) for the implementation of the Registry of Overseas Entities (ROE). The Innovation Award (Excellence) is awarded to the most outstanding innovation project among the participants.

Implemented just over 4 months after the enabling legislations were introduced, the ROE was a true display of agile innovation from Companies House. ROE not only achieved the policy goals of having a robust process to combat cross-border economic crime, but the all-digital solution was also designed from the client’s perspective to facilitate compliance with laws and increase transparency.

The head of Foreign Entity Registry at Companies House, Rachael Watts, said:

We are delighted that all the hard work put into making the launch of the registry possible has received such wonderful recognition.

Getting the registry up and running in such a short time was not only challenging, but also required a great deal of collaboration and engagement with stakeholders across government and beyond.

We continue to learn and improve the registry, so it will continue to prove an effective tool in the fight against economic crime.

Grades:

• The Foreign Entity Register was announced as part of the Economic Crimes (Transparency and Compliance) Bill in February 2022, as part of the UK’s immediate response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• The Foreign Entity Register came into force on 1 August 2022 and requires foreign entities wishing to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK to register with the Companies Register and declare who their beneficial owners or directors are.

• Entities that do not register will face criminal and civil penalties and will not be able to freely trade their land due to the restrictions placed on it. Companies House is now evaluating cases for enforcement actions working in partnership with law enforcement agencies.

• The CRF Innovation Awards celebrate the spirit of innovation and honor CRF jurisdictions that have successfully launched world-class initiatives, as well as those that have creatively implemented custom solutions, to make a real difference to their stakeholders. .

• The House of Societies holds the Presidency of the CRF, and also provides the Secretariat. The President and Secretary were not involved in the evaluation of the Companies House entry.

*Accurate information as of April 30. Google Analytics only provides data for users who have consented to cookies that measure website usage. This means that the number of searches will be higher than those indicated in this article.