ENFORCEMENT OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP FILINGS AND SECURITIES REGISTERS AS FROM 01 OCTOBER 2023
The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) implemented a beneficial ownership register from 01 April 2023 on a voluntary basis. The filing of beneficial ownership filings and securities/beneficial interest registers became mandatory from 24 May 2023 upon promulgation of the Amended Companies Regulations to give full effect to the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022.
In terms of the amended regulations, entities incorporated after promulgation of the amended Companies regulations have to file beneficial ownership information within 10 business days after the date of incorporation. The same applies with regard to the updating of beneficial ownership records when there are changes.
Pre-existing entities, which had their anniversary date after the promulgation of the amended Companies Regulations have to also file their beneficial ownership information. We have noted that a number of entities which were supposed to file their beneficial ownership information have not filed as required. This notice serves as a reminder and those entities who have not filed are encouraged to do so.
The Commission will also be engaging some of the entities to enforce filing of their beneficial ownership information. The Commission will also conduct inspections to verify if the filed beneficial ownership information that is on our records corresponds with records kept by respective entities.
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