Registrar's Transparency Register

## Product Owner

Steve Burtch

## Description

The Business Transparency Registry (BTR) is a significant initiative aimed at supporting governmental efforts and law enforcement agencies in combating tax evasion, money laundering, and terrorist financing. By addressing the challenge of anonymity of beneficiaries associated with incorporated entities, the BTR mandates that companies disclose their beneficial owners—namely, the natural persons who ultimately own or control a company.

## Solution

**Solution**
The new BTR delivers on the Cullen Commission’s key recommendations around establishing a corporate beneficial registry, that it be:
- Publicly accessible
- Accurate and timely
- Strongly enforced
- Pan-Canadian in scope

**Registry Processes**
At a high level, the process steps are:
- Businesses (or their representatives, like law firms) add names of BOs to the Registry.
- Beneficial owners verify their identity and confirm their significant ownership.
- Beneficial owners are then searchable by competent authorities (detailed beneficial ownership information) and the general public (restricted beneficial ownership information).
- API access to Significant Individual information for BODS data partners