Richard Murphy in Tax Research UK:

There’s  a perverse consequence of the new rules on beneficial ownership of companies announced today.  Because the government has not adopted my recommendation that all UK banks should be required to supply information on the beneficial ownership of the companies to whom they provide banking services  but the government has, at the same time, signed information sharing agreements with places like the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, it will now be easier for HMRC  to find out who is the beneficial owner of a company banking in Cayman  than it will be to find out the same information regarding  UK companies that bank in Stockport, Plymouth, Norwich,  Cardiff or Glasgow.