UK moves to speed up assets recovery for Sri Lanka, others

13 May 2016 11:54 am

The Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss returning assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, the BBC reported on Thursday.

The meeting will be held in the US next year, co-hosted with the UK, and supported by the UN and the World Bank.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron made the announcement at a global anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday.

It was being hailed as the first of its kind, bringing together governments, business and other organisations.

There has been concern recently that the UK, particularly London, had become a place where rich foreigners could buy properties but hide their true ownership.

Mr. Cameron said that to stop that, foreign firms which own property in the UK must declare their assets in a public register.

Downing Street said Mr. Cameron's plans would include those who already owned UK property as well as those seeking to buy it.

It said the register would mean "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market, and will not benefit from our public funds".

It said foreign companies owned about 100,000 properties in England and Wales and that more than 44,000 of these were in London.

Five other countries including France, Kenya, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan have also pledged to launch public registers of true company ownership. Australia, New Zealand, Jordan, Indonesia, Ireland and Georgia announced initial steps towards similar arrangements.