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On December 16th, 2020, the Council of Ministers decided to transpose the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU) 2015/849 to the national legislation. This new AML Law amendment shall essentially implement the central registry of ultimate beneficial owners. The registry is to be developed and completed in the second half of 2021 and access to it shall be limited and permitted only to competent authorities, such as the Tax Authority, Ministry of Finance, Police and others, upon submission of a formal request at the Registrar.
The Council of Ministers decided and passed into the law the following:
- Appointment of the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver of the Ministry of Energy, Trade, and Industry, as the competent authority for maintaining the central register of ultimate beneficial owners of companies and other legal entities; and
- Authorisation of the Registrar to collect information about the ultimate beneficial owners and other legal entities through the interim system that has been developed.
Based on the above, the Ministry of Commerce has announced that the collection of information will commence on January 18th, 2021. All legal entities registered in Cyprus will be granted a grace period of 6 months in order to submit their relevant information and reportable details to the system. As a result, all legal persons and legal arrangements through their registered agents have a duty to comply with the provisions of the new legislation by July 19th, 2021.
For further information relating to the 4th and 5th AML Directive, please contact our Legal Consultants.
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CEO Eurofast
ceo@eurofast.eu
28/12/2020