What is the Register of Beneficial Owners intended for?
Register of Beneficial Owners has officially begun to be introduced March 12th, 2021 for the purpose of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. It is a register that provides relevant information about the beneficial owners of Cyprus companies. All Cyprus companies and other Cyprus Legal Entities must collect this information and submit the said information on the ROC’s online portal (known as “ARIADNI”).
Since June 1st, 2022, the Register of Beneficial Owners had become public, which means that the general public had the right to access the information contained in the Register of Beneficial Owners.
You can find more detailed information about who the beneficial owners are, what information is stored in the register, who can get information from the it, about the timing of entering information into the register, as well as responsibility for non-entry (late entry) of information on the .
What happened to access to the Register of Beneficial Owners on November 23rd, 2022?
Following the Judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, of November 22, 2022, access to the Register of Beneficial Owners for the general public is suspended as of November 23rd, 2022.
From this moment the access to the information on the beneficial ownership of legal entities to any member of the general public, is invalid as it constitutes a serious interference with the fundamental rights of respect for private life and to the protection of personal data. This means that access to the Register be possible for general public, however, REVERA law group as service provider, will be able to receive this information from the Registry.
Even earlier anyone could, by applying to the Cypriot office of the Registrar of Companies and paying the corresponding administrative fee, receive electronically the data concerning the beneficial owners of companies that were registered in Cyprus.
Please note that the information from the Register of Beneficial Owners will continue to be provided to:
- the competent authorities;
- the obliged entities, with the applicable procedure by submitting additionally a solemn declaration confirming that the information on the Beneficial Owners is requested within the context of performing customer due diligence.
The obligation of companies and partnerships to submit and update their Beneficial Owners information is not affected and remains valid.
