Between the beginning of this year and May 7, 760 new companies were registered, having provided declarations of their beneficial owners.

Companies formed since January 1, 2018 are obliged to declare who the beneficial owners are – with an exemption for those whose shareholders appear on a public list held by the Company Registrar.

Companies registered before then have been given a transition period of six months, and are for now not obliged to notify their beneficial owners to the Registrar.

The information on the beneficial owners is held by the Registrar and is – as from April 1, 2018 – made available to the various national authorities responsible for combating, investigating and prosecuting money laundering and terrorist financing.

The law also says that any person or organisation who can satisfactorily demonstrate and justify a legitimate interest would have access to certain details about the beneficial owners, upon written request.

Replying to a parliamentary question by MP Karol Aquilina, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat noted that the Registrar was obliged to refuse any applications for new company registrations which did not satisfy the legal requirements – but that no statistics were kept on how many were rejected.

“However, I can confirm that there were a number of cases where the Company Registrar did not accept the memorandum and articles of proposed new companies because the declaration was not submitted," he told parliament.

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