Decision of the Council of Ministers-Curator of Companies Competent Authority for the Registration of Real Beneficiaries of companies and other legal entities Article 61A (4) (a) of the transposition into national law of the 4th European Directive (EU 2015/849) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing provides for the maintenance of a central register of real beneficiary companies and other legal entities (N13 (I) / 2018).
The Council of Ministers, during its Meeting, dated 16/12/2020, on the basis of a relevant proposal of the Advisory Authority for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, made pursuant to the provisions of Article 57 (b) decided to: Appoint the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver of the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry, as the competent authority for the maintenance of the central Register of Real Beneficiaries of the companies and other legal entities and Authorize it to collect information about the real beneficiaries of companies and other legal entities through the intermediate system solution that has been developed.
Based on the above, the Registrar of Companies initially announced that the start date of data collection for companies is set for Monday, 18.01.2021.
However according to the new announcement of the Registrar of Companies, the start of the collection of data of Real Beneficiaries of the companies and other legal entities, is postponed to 22.2.2021 as a new date of data collection for companies. The companies will be granted a period of 6 months for registration of the information concerning the real beneficiaries of the legal entity 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.
At the same time the Cyprus Bar Association informed its members that any registration in this system is not mandatory until relevant regulations are adopted in Cyprus.
The Registrar of Companies informed that the relevant regulations are expected to be adopted within 2 months, i.e. approximately to the end of March 2021.
It is expected that the draft regulations will be sent to the Cyprus Bar Association for reviews and comments before its adoption.
The information so collected will be transferred to the final system solution to be developed in the second half of 2021 and rules on access to it will be based on the provisions of the 5th European Directive (EU 2018/843) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018. , concerning the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The companies should already have in their possession the information on beneficiaries, based on the provisions of article 61 (A).
In addition, these data are 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 the Regulation of Business Services and Related Issues Laws of 2012 to 2020. It was recommended to seek for the legal advice on the subject.