Electronic Register of Beneficiaries in Cyprus

December 23, 2020

The Council of Ministers of Cyprus on 16/12/2020 decided to Appoint the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver, as the competent authority for the maintenance of the central Register of Real Beneficiaries of the companies and authorized it to collect information about the actual beneficiaries of companies and other legal entities through the system developed.

Registrar of Companies announced that the start date of data collection for companies is 18.01.2021. The companies will be granted a period of 6 months – until 19/7/2021 for registration of the information concerning the real beneficiaries in the system that has been developed.

The system that has been developed is an intermediate solution and access to it is possible only for the competent authorities, upon request to the Registrar of Companies.

The information collected will be transferred to the final system solution to be developed in the second half of 2021 and access to it will be based on the provisions of the 5th European Directive (EU 2018/843) dd 30 May 2018, concerning the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

[translators comment: as per the cl. 33 of the said directive “Member States should … allow access to beneficial ownership information on corporate and other legal entities …  through the central registers in which beneficial ownership information is set out, by establishing a clear rule of public access, so that third parties are able to ascertain, throughout the Union, who are the beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities.”].

The companies are invited to start collecting the above information (which they should already have in their possession).

In addition, these data is kept in some cases by liable entities that provide services to companies under the provisions of Articles 2A (d), 60 and 61 of the above Law in the context of the exercise of due diligence measures and on the basis of the provisions of On the Regulation of Business Services and Related Issues Laws of 2012 to 2020. In case it is deemed necessary, the provision of legal advice is recommended.

The Registrar of Companies will return in due course with more information and the relevant link for submitting this information.