Malta Business Registry Compliance – Is your business ready?

Malta Business Registry Compliance – Is your business ready?

14 March 2022

Recent changes in Malta’s financial regulations have beefed up the powers of the Malta Business Registry in terms of compliance and inspections, and hefty fines are being handed out if documents are found to be missing from company files.

These recent changes were brought about as a result of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations to the Maltese Government.

The change of processes has significantly heightened the powers of scrutiny that the Malta Business Registry is expected to exercise on companies and businesses.

So, what has changed?

The Maltese Business Registry, which was previously known as The Registry of Companies, was an institution of record: it received and recorded the movement of shareholders, directors and company secretaries etc. and limited itself to the registration of these incorporations and changes.

For example, businesses would make a request to the Registrar of Companies in order to file forms such as “Removal of Director” and once it was received, it would be filed without much fanfare and that would be the end of it.

The whole compliance landscape has now changed and now the process is far more interactive. Indeed, a company is expected to have all of these documents on file. Thus if the MBR conducts an inspection and finds that any of these documents are missing, it can impose a fine of up to ten thousand euros if the missing documents are not provided within a week from the request.

Businesses are expected to have these company documents on file and must be ready to send them at a moment’s notice and should indeed work towards being in a situation where no documentation is missing. AE Business Advisors has a service line that ensures client companies are always on top of their documentary compliance requirements. At a competitive fee, we ensure good housekeeping, the properly organised general meetings, and mock inspections that we organise from time to time to ensure a high level of preparedness. Contact contact@ae.com.mt

AE Business Advisors provides a range of tailored corporate and professional solutions including tax advisory services, accounting and finance, residency, compliance, and regulated iGaming.

We have been supporting our clients for more than two decades and today, as the regulation of businesses becomes ever stricter, we renew our commitment to continue providing quality support, helping Maltese registered businesses update their operations and make compliance a natural, seamless process.