On 22 April 2016, the Finance Ministers of the 28 EU Member States agreed to take part in the recently announced initiative by France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to develop a multilateral system for the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information ({News-2016-04-18/P/2- previous coverage}). On the basis of the agreement, the EU Commission will work on proposals to streamline and inter-connect company registers in the Member States, with actual exchanges expected to begin in approximately one year. In addition to the Finance Ministers agreement, a joint statement on the initiative has been issued, which also includes the...