FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY
Press Release
Amendments to the Interna?onal Business Companies Act, 2016rdDate: 3 December, 2018thOn the 30 November, 2018 the Seychelles enacted the International Business Companies(Amendment) Act, 2018 (“Amendment Act”) which amends the International Business Companies Act,
2016 (“IBC Act”).
The main amendments under this Amendment Act are as follows:

1. Removal of public access to ﬁled Register of Directors
Under the previous provisions of the Oﬀshore IBC Act, the copies of Register of Directors filed withstthe Registrar would have become public on 1 December, 2018. The Amendment Act removespublic access to the filed Register of Directors and grants access only in following instances:(a)in obedience to a court order(b)when compelled by the enforcement of any law (e.g. the Financial Intelligence Unit
under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the General Commissioner under theRevenue Administration Act)(c)to the registered agent of a company to which the register relates(d)to a specified third party upon authorisaWon of the registered agent or a director of acompany to which the register relates.

2. Extension of the powers of the Registrar to restore struck-off companies
Under the previous provisions of the IBC Act, the Registrar could restore a company to the Register
only if the company was struck-off for failure to pay its annual fee. The new amendments toPage 1 of 2

secWon 276 empowers the Registrar to also restore companies whose name has been struck-oﬀ
in cases where the company:(a)has ceased to carry on business or is not in operation(b)

has failed to file any notice or document required to be filed under the IBC Act(c)has failed to have registered agent(d)has failed to comply with a request made pursuant to the IBC Act or other written lawof Seychelles by the Seychelles Revenue Commission, the Financial Intelligence Unitor the Registrar for a document or information;(e)

has failed keep a register of directors, register of members, register of charges,
register of beneficial owners or accounting records required to be kept by it under
this Act or any other records required to be kept by it under the IBC Act, or(f)has failed to pay any penalty fees imposed by the Registrar

3. Extension of time period to compliance with the filling of Register of Directors andobligations relating to Beneficial Owners
The Amendment Act extends the time period for compliance with the fling of the Register ofDirectors with the Registrar from 12 months to 24 months from the IBC Act commencement datest(i.e. until 1 December, 2018) and, in order to regularize the content of the FSA’s Circular No. 6 of2017, increase the time period for compliance with obligations relaWng to BeneficialOwners fromst
12 months to 18 months from the IBC Act commencement date (i.e. unWl 31 May, 2018).

4. Extension of time period for dissolution of company
Under the previous section 275 of the IBC Act, a Seychelles Oﬀshore company that remains struckoﬀ continuously for a period of 5 years is dissolved with eﬀect from the last day of that period.
The Amendment Act extends this time period from 5 years to 7 years (note that this period will
include any period accumulated under the former Act (i.e. IBC Act, 1994) for former Act
companies).

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