Cyprus issues call to companies to submit Beneficial Ownership data
The Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property issued a notice on 1 September to all Cyprus-registered companies and partnerships to submit the required information to the Register of Beneficial Owners of Corporate and Other Legal Entities by 30 September to avoid non-compliance.
It said that implementation of the final electronic system of the Register of Beneficial Owners was expected to take place around the end of October.
All companies that have been incorporated or registered under the Companies Law Cap. 113, or European public limited liability companies (SE) or partnerships, as well as their officers or partners, are required to submit the details and information of their beneficial owners on the Register if they have not already done so.
With the launch of the final electronic system, a one-month period will be granted for confirming and completing data from all entities that has already been submitted to the interim solution and will be migrated onto the final system. Within this period requests for exemption from disclosing information, as well as the grounds for due diligence, must be submitted.
At the end of the one-month period, the automatic imposition of fines and penalties for the non-compliant companies will commence through the final electronic system of the Register of Beneficial Owners.
In the event of a failure to comply, the corporate or other legal entity and each of its officers will be subject to a fine of €200 and a further fine of €100 for each day of continuation of the violation up to a maximum charge of €20,000. Criminal proceedings may also be initiated due to non-compliance.
It should be noted that, an officer of a corporate or other legal entity will not be subject to a fine if he/she has exercised due diligence to comply with the provisions of the Cyprus Prevention & Suppression of Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing Laws N.188(I)/2007 and of the EU Directive P.I. 112/2021 as amended and the violation is not due to any act or omission or negligence on his/her part.
