On March 29, 2023, Minister of Finance Katrine Conroy announced the province is amending the Business Corporations Act to create a new, public registry for beneficial owners to be launched in 2025. 

The goal is to end hidden ownership and ensure private companies in BC aren’t being used for money laundering or other criminal activities. 

Money launderers often use numbered companies and complex corporate structures to hide illegal activities and identities, according to Minister Conroy.  

The idea for a beneficial ownership registry came from recommendations from the provincial Expert Panel on Money Laundering in Real Estate report. 

The report identified disclosure of beneficial ownership as the single most important measure to help stop money laundering and strengthen how government agencies detect and deter illegal activity. 

These amendments expand on the existing requirement for private BC companies, incorporated under the Business Corporations Act, to identify their beneficial owners and keep a list of these individuals in their corporate records. 

Once the registry is up and running, businesses will be required to submit and confirm a list of beneficial owners once a year and any time there is a significant change in ownership or control. Currently businesses are required to collect this information, but it’s held privately.

A centralized registry will provide law enforcement and other authorities with access to beneficial owners without having to go directly to businesses for corporate records. This change will prevent criminals from being prematurely aware they’re being investigated. 

By sharing this information, the province is helping to support the establishment of a multi-jurisdictional beneficial ownership registry that can act as a single hub for corporate beneficial information.

• A beneficial owner is a person that holds, directly or indirectly, 25 per cent or more of the shares of a corporation. 
• BC is the second province, after Quebec, to establish a central, partially public corporate beneficial ownership registry. 
• The creation of a beneficial ownership registry follows the creation of the Land Owner Transparency Registry that tracks beneficial owners of properties held by trusts, partnerships and corporations.  
• The registry will follow similar privacy practices as the Land Owner Transparency Registry, and select only information that will be available to the public. 

• Read the news release announcing the creation of the beneficial registry. 
• Read the conclusions and recommendations of the Combatting money laundering in real estate report (opens 184-page pdf) conclusions 4, 6,10, 12; recommendations 2, 3, 4, 5, 15.  
• Read about the Land Owner Transparency Registry.