UK brings in ownership register for property held by foreign companies

FILE PHOTO: A general view shows a construction site in London, Britain July 7, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will now require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners in an official register, the government said on Monday, as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth.

The "Register of Overseas Entities", which becomes active from Monday, is part of a wider economic crime law enacted this year in an effort to stop the flow of illicit Russian cash into London following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.