Summary

The Global Forum rated Vanuatu overall Partially Compliant with the international standard on transparency and exchange of information (EOI) on requests handled over the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. Availability of accounting information in the offshore sector remains the weak point in this report. While the legal requirement, for companies operating in the offshore sector to keep appropriate accounting records, was significantly improved in 2017, no supervision of the new requirements took place. Beneficial ownership requirements are broadly in line with the standard, although the identification of beneficial owners for trusts and foundations needs improvement. The supervision of these requirements by the relevant authority also needs to be strengthened. On the cooperation side, Vanuatu was always able to provide the information requested, although it received only two requests, which did not include accounting information.

• News release