Latin America and the Caribbean have made strides in building legal frameworks to fight corruption and money laundering. But the implementation of specific tools — particularly beneficial ownership registries — still faces serious challenges, according to a recent report.
The report, published by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) on July 7, analyzes the current state of corporate transparency in Latin America and the Caribbean. It evaluates governments’ capacity to identify the individuals who ultimately own, control, or benefit from legal entities and companies.
Registries containing this information — known as beneficial ownership registries — are a crucial tool for targeting the misuse of companies for criminal purposes and corruption. The system is backed by international organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that promotes global standards to protect the integrity of the financial system.
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Criminal groups commonly exploit the corporate sector through methods such as laundering money via shell companies or complex corporate structures, or using legitimate businesses to hide illicit operations, including drug trafficking through export businesses.
Criminal networks also use companies to bribe corrupt public officials or gain access to public contracts, which in some cases can be worth millions of dollars.
Despite the importance of knowing who is behind these entities and transactions, not all countries have implemented the necessary controls. In the United States, where an estimated $300 billion is laundered annually, the Trump administration earlier this year rolled back enforcement of a law requiring companies to report beneficial ownership information.
InSight Crime spoke with Claudia Helms, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program at Global Financial Integrity, and Luisa Acosta, program assistant at the organization and former InSight Crime researcher, about how this tool is being implemented across the region.
InSight Crime (IC): How widespread is the use of beneficial ownership registries in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Claudia Helms (CH): Of the 38 countries and jurisdictions analyzed, more than 72% have some type of registry. This is significant because in countries without a centralized registry, the information might be stored in other places — in a mercantile registry database or something similar — which makes it scattered and hard to verify in an orderly manner.
Luisa Acosta (LA): Most countries already have solid legal frameworks that meet FATF standards. But in practice, enforcement is lacking and depends on the political will of governments. That’s one of the key challenges we’ve identified.
IC: What impact do these registries have in combating illicit financial flows and organized crime in the region?
CH: A beneficial ownership registry helps fight the anonymity that allows for shell companies and complex legal structures. To dismantle criminal groups, you need to break the money trail. The registry reveals the person who ultimately benefits from the company and its transactions, which helps tie them to criminal networks.
LA: Some registries include spousal information or relatives up to the fourth degree, like in Colombia. We know criminal leaders rarely register assets under their own names. They use the names of their wives, children, and other relatives. Identifying the true beneficiary helps expose how the criminal group is structured, an important insight for prosecutors and financial intelligence units.
IC: One weakness flagged in the report is the exclusion of foreign companies from registries in several countries. How does this gap benefit organized crime?
LA: Leaving foreign companies out of these registries creates a legal loophole that enables anonymity in transnational operations. This is especially serious in Latin America, where transnational criminal groups like the Clan del Golfo in Colombia operate along cocaine routes stretching across the region to Europe and the United States. Brazil’s First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) and criminal groups in Mexico are also clear examples of how such groups exploit these loopholes.
IC: The report mentions that some countries impose fines on companies that fail to submit the required information, but these fines can simply be paid with no further consequences. What would be a more effective alternative? What mechanisms could strengthen enforcement?
LA: In Belize, for example, authorities suspend the company’s business license so it can no longer operate. Other countries bar non-compliant companies from accessing the financial system, which prevents them from taking out loans or financing their operations. In some cases, failing to report beneficial ownership can even lead to prison sentences. What’s needed is a more holistic enforcement strategy.
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IC: What are the main challenges to implementing beneficial ownership registries in the region?
CH: One of the biggest challenges is ensuring the information is accurate, up-to-date, and not just entered to check a legal box — it needs to be useful to authorities. There’s also the issue of human and financial resources: Who will verify the data? What institutions will coordinate? Who will oversee the process?
Another challenge is ensuring sustainable interoperability of information across government agencies. It’s not enough for the agency managing the registry to hold the data — there must be ongoing and fluid information-sharing. That helps detect criminal patterns and identify red flags.
This is why targeting criminal structures is so complex: it’s not just about declaring beneficial owners, but about how that information is used.
LA: Another critical point is linking the beneficial ownership registry with public procurement systems, since this is often how criminal groups move illicit funds. In our report, we found that only Chile — which is currently developing its centralized registry — has connected beneficial ownership data to its public contracting platform. As a result, the country has been able to identify several cases involving conflicts of interest.