One Register To Rule Them All
A fragmented system becomes a unified one: registrars issue global LEIs by default, businesses gain a shared identity, and ownership networks stop being an international guessing game.
By Stephen Abbot Pugh, UBO research and insights - consultancy at Kyckr
Instead of spending years we don't have to spare fighting to try to piece together ownership information from hundreds of registers across the world, 2026 will be the year we create one single global register for all companies and make them sign up to it.
Business is global so we start by mandating that every corporate registrar is set up to issue a global LEI for companies as well as a national ID number. This gives registrars a rich new source of income (as LEIs should be renewed each year for a small fee) and builds on work GLEIF has been doing.
Then once we have a global ID for every company and can understand how companies own other companies, a global ownership register for the people connected to those businesses becomes the logical next step.
The LEI is driven by the G20, Financial Stability Board and large banks worldwide. Created in the wake of the last financial crisis so good to lean into it as we might be heading for the popping of another bubble.
Everyone agrees we need this but no one is leading the charge. The UN has discussed how it is needed to tax the wealthy and reduce inequality and is thinking about a Global Asset Register. The OECD has a voluntary international framework for countries exchanging beneficial ownership information, like they do for tax information. FATF says beneficial ownership information is "critical across all stages of asset recovery – identification, tracing, freezing, confiscation, and repatriation". The European Banking Authority says that AMLA should encourage EU countries to "collect data and information in a consistent way in all Member States". We have the solutions. All we need is for one of the global organisations to take charge and put their foot down.
