Ending shell companies does not threaten privacy

In last week's op-ed Fundamental snag with new EU money-laundering rules, Martin Kenney, a lawyer based in the British Virgin Islands criticises one of the cornerstones of the new EU anti-money laundering rules: the granting of public access to a minimum set of information on the person who ultimately owns an EU-based company, commonly known as the beneficial owner.

This is not a new debate and the issue was widely discussed during th...