Inspired by “Accountability by Design” by John Murray, VP European Operations and Special Projects at Foster Moore
Public trust is one of the most valuable national assets any government can hold. In the world of business and public-sector registries, trust is earned through transparent operations, visible accountability, and evidence-based custodianship of public data.
As John Murray highlighted in Accountability by Design, transparency is not just a principle. It is a practice that must be visible, measurable, and embedded into the daily operations of every registry. When authorities openly publish performance, compliance, and operational statistics, they reinforce their role as trusted custodians and strengthen the integrity of public information.
Today, as expectations around compliance, risk mitigation, AML and data accuracy increase, transparency is becoming the defining characteristic of modern registries. Authorities that embrace open reporting are not only protecting data quality. They are building national resilience.
A registry is more than a repository of business records. It is part of a nation’s core institutional infrastructure. It influences how investors assess risk, how agencies enforce standards, and how citizens understand the integrity of economic activity.
Open reporting strengthens the system in several ways. It builds economic confidence by reassuring investors and entrepreneurs that the environment is predictable and well governed. It improves fairness by making compliance performance visible and consistent for all entities. It boosts public legitimacy by showing that institutions operate with transparency and responsibility. It also helps reduce fraud by making non-compliance and irregularities easier to detect and address.
Jurisdictions that adopt real time compliance indicators and open operational data often achieve higher reporting accuracy and improved governance outcomes.
When a registry embraces transparency by design, it moves from being a passive record keeper to an active guardian of national data integrity.
Open reporting and transparent compliance practices create value far beyond the registry authority. When information is visible, trustworthy, and consistent, it strengthens the entire ecosystem around a registry. Stakeholders gain clearer insights, better decision making, and greater confidence in the integrity of the business environment. This shared transparency helps build a stronger foundation for digital governance and economic growth.
The public benefits through increased confidence that registry information is accurate, credible, and responsibly maintained. Transparency helps people trust the businesses they interact with and reinforces the role of registers as guardians of reliable information.
Registered entities operate in a fairer environment where compliant behaviour is visible and recognised. When obligations and outcomes are transparent, it encourages responsible conduct and levels the playing field for those who meet their regulatory requirements.
Regulators and government agencies rely on transparent reporting to support risk assessment, AML monitoring, enforcement, and collaboration across agencies. Access to dependable data improves policy outcomes and strengthens the effectiveness of public oversight.
Financial institutions and industry gain from better quality data that speeds up onboarding, enhances KYC processes, and reduces operational risk. Transparency helps organisations make quicker, more informed decisions and enables smoother interactions across the financial system.
The concept of transparency by design is well established in open-government research. In their paper Transparency-by-Design as a Foundation for Open Government, Janssen, Matheus, Longo and Weerakkody describe it as a design approach in which “transparency is taken into account in every phase of the design process, resulting in the automatic opening of relevant data for the public in such a way that it is easy to understand and interpret.”
This principle aligns closely with the direction modern registries are taking: moving from periodic, manual reporting toward systems intentionally built to disclose accurate, contextualised information as a natural output of their daily operations. By embedding transparency at the architectural level, rather than treating it as an afterthought, registries can deliver greater accountability, improve public trust, and create more resilient digital infrastructure.
A future ready registry does not treat transparency as a reporting function. It treats it as a design principle that shapes its technology, data governance, operational processes, and regulatory posture. Transparency by design ensures that every interaction, output, and decision made by the registry can be explained, measured, and trusted. This approach elevates the registry from a passive data holder to an active, accountable, and resilient public institution.
Automated reporting creates consistent dashboards and metrics without manual effort. It keeps information accurate, up to date, and ready for public or internal use while reducing error and improving efficiency.
Live indicators show how entities are meeting filing and verification obligations. They help authorities spot trends early, respond quickly, and maintain confidence that compliance is actively monitored.
Scorecards present clear summaries of performance, including verification accuracy, turnaround times, and processing rates. They make operational standards visible and support continuous improvement.
Open APIs allow authorised agencies and partners to access registry data programmatically. This promotes collaboration, reduces manual data exchange, and strengthens national compliance frameworks.
Interoperability ensures registry data aligns with national and international standards. It enables seamless exchange across government systems and supports efforts like AML, Beneficial Ownership visibility, and cross border collaboration.
By making compliance patterns visible, transparency enables targeted oversight. High risk entities receive greater focus, while low risk groups face less friction, improving efficiency and regulatory impact.
By embedding open reporting into their operations, registry authorities create a powerful ripple effect that benefits the entire economy. Transparent reporting strengthens national resilience, improves economic competitiveness, supports regulatory cooperation, reduces fraud and non-compliance, and builds lasting public trust. When stakeholders can see that compliance is real, consistent, and accountable, confidence in the business environment grows.
Registries can strengthen this cycle by adopting transparency-by-design practices such as automating disclosure at the source and publishing datasets with clear metadata to make information easier to interpret and trust. Real-time indicators give stakeholders an up-to-date view of compliance and economic activity, while interoperable data models allow information to move seamlessly across agencies. These are the kinds of design principles and operational improvements that Foster Moore helps registries embed into their modernisation journeys, ensuring transparency is built in from the start rather than added later as an afterthought.
In a world where data credibility is under constant scrutiny, transparency becomes the foundation of a modern and reliable registry system. It creates the trust that allows businesses to invest, regulators to collaborate, and communities to prosper. Reporting leads to transparency, transparency leads to trust, and trust drives growth. This cycle is what ultimately enables sustainable development and long-term economic prosperity.
Foster Moore works alongside registries around the world to design, modernise, and future proof their registries through specialised advisory services that unlock transparency, strengthen governance, and enable stronger national economies. Let us help you build the next generation of trusted public infrastructure.
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John Murray, Vice President Europe & Special Projects at Foster Moore, leads the company’s growth across Europe and brings nearly three decades of global experience in registry modernisation. He has played a pivotal role in shaping major initiatives such as the European Business Registry, several national company registers, and has contributed to multiple European Commission–funded interoperability projects including BRITE, e-CODEX, e-SENS and EBOCS. John’s deep expertise, spanning Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East, makes him one of the most influential voices in the evolution of modern, connected registry ecosystems.