B 1111
Suppliment tal-Gazzetta tal-Gvern ta’ Malta Nru. 20,231, 12 ta’
 Lulju, 2019
Taqsima  B
____________________________________________________________________B 1111
L.N. 158 of 2019
COMPANIES ACT
(CAP. 386)
Companies Act (Register of Beneficial Owners) 
(Amendment) Regulations, 2019
IN EXERCISE of the powers conferred by article 425 (6) of the
Companies Act, the Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Servic es,
Digital Economy and Innova tion has made the following regulatio ns:-
Citation.
S.L. 386.19.1. The title of these regulations is the Companies Act
(Register of Beneficial Owners) (Amendment) Regulations, 2019 a nd
shall be read and construed as one with the Companies Act (Regi ster of
Beneficial Owners) Regulations, hereinafter referred to as "the
principal regulations".
Substitutes 
regulation 5 of the principal 
regulations.2. Sub-regulation (2) of regulation 5 the principal
regulations, shall be substituted y the following: 
"(2) Any natural person who has reasonable cause to
believe to be a beneficial owner of a company shall be bound to
provide the information required under sub-regulation (1) to th e
company without delay. 
Without prejudice to the aforesaid, the company shall
obtain the information require d under sub-regulation (1) from
the shareholders of the company and, or from any natural person
whom it has reasonable cause to be lieve to be a beneficial owne r,
who shall be bound to provide the said information to the
company without delay, and every beneficial owner who
acquires, disposes of, increases or reduces his beneficial inte rest
in the company shall be bound to immediately provide the said
information to the company.".
Amends 
regulation 7 of 
the principal regulations,3. Regulation 7 of the principal regulations shall be amended
as follows:
(i) immediately after sub-regulation (1)(b), there shall be
added the following new paragraph:
"*(c) any member of the general public :
Provided that access granted to any member of the
* Comes into force on 1st January, 2020.
VERŻJONI ELETTRONIKA
B 111 2
B 1112
general public shall be to the name, the month and year of
birth, the nationality, the country of residence and the
extent and nature of the beneficial interest of the beneficialowners of a company."; 
*(ii) sub-regulations (2) to (4) thereof shall be deleted;
(iii) sub-regulations (5) to (8) thereof shall be renumbered
as sub-regulations (2) and (5) respectively;
(iv) sub-regulation (5) as renumbered shall be substituted
by the following: 
"(5) Access to information on a beneficial owner of
a company under sub-regulations (1)(b) and (c) may not begranted, in full or in part, where in exceptional
circumstances to be justified by means of documentary
evidence and to be determined on a case by case basis,access to such beneficial own ership information would
expose the beneficial owner to disproportionate risk, risk offraud, kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, harassment,violence or intimidation, or where the beneficial owner is a
minor or otherwise legally incapable:
S.L. 373.01.Provided that this sub-regulation shall not apply to
credit institutions and finan cial institutions or to subject
persons. The term "subject persons" shall have the same
meaning as assigned to it under the Prevention of MoneyLaundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.".
Renumbering of 
the principal 
regulations.4. Regulations 12 to 15 of the principal regulations shall be
renumbered as regulations 13 to 16 respectively.
Adds new 
regulation to the principal 
regulations.5. Immediately after regulation 11 of the principal regulations
there shall be added the following new regulation:
* Comes into force on 1st January, 2020."Measures to 
ensure adequate, 
accurate and 
current 
information.12. (1) Where the Registrar has reasonable
cause to believe that the beneficial ownership
information submitted to him in respect of a
commercial partnership may not be accurate or up-to-date, he may make enquiries with the commercial
partnership, including by carrying out physical on-site
investigation at the premises referred to in regulation5(3), in order to establish the current beneficial
ownership.
VERŻJONI ELETTRONIKA
B 111 3
B 1113
Adds new 
regulation to the principal 
regulations.6. Immediately after regulation 16 of the principal
regulations, as renumbered, there shall be added the following new
regulation:(2) The competent authorities mentioned in
regulation 7(1)(a), to the extent that this requirement
does not interfere unnecessarily with their functions,
and subject persons, as referred to in regulation 7(1)(b),
shall report any discrepancies they find between thebeneficial information available to them and the
beneficial ownership information held in the register of
beneficial owners kept by th e Registrar. The Registrar
shall take any appropriate actions in order to resolve
such discrepancies and, where necessary, update the
beneficial ownership information in the register. Until
such time that discrepancies are resolved, the Registrar
may, if he deems appropriate, make specific mention inthe register of beneficial owners of the discrepancies.
(3) Where the Registrar deems it necessary to
update the beneficial ownership information in the
register in terms of this regulation, every officer of the
company shall be liable to a penalty of
 not more than ten
thousand euro (€10,000).".
"Period of 
availability 
of information.17. Without prejudice to regulation 7(5), the
information on the beneficial owners of a company
referred to in regulation 4 shall be available through theregister of beneficial owners held by the Registrar and
through the system of interconnection of registries
referred to in regulation 13 f or 5 years after the name of
the company has been struck off from the register.".
VERŻJONI ELETTRONIKA
B 111 4
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ippubblikat mid-Dipartiment tal-Informazzjoni (doi.gov.mt) — Valletta — Published by the Department of Information (doi.gov.mt) — Valletta
Mitbugħ fl-Istamperija tal-Gvern fuq karta FSC — Printed at the Government Printing Press on FSC certified paper
Prezz/Price
€0.18
VERŻJONI ELETTRONIKA