On 28 February 2017, the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted draft amendments to the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive to broaden public access to beneficial ownership registries. Access to beneficial ownership information formed part of the fourth anti-money laundering directive approved in May 2015 ({News-2015-05-21/A/4- previous coverage}), which requires that all EU Member States establish a central registry of beneficial ownership information for companies and trusts. These central registries must be accessible to competent authorities, financial intelligence units, and obliged entities such as banks as part of customer...