Malta Business Registry

The Malta Business Registry is responsible for the registration of new companies and commercial partnerships, the registration of documents related to commercial partnerships, the issuing of certified documentation including certificates of good-standing, the reservation of company names, the collection of registration and other fees, the publication of notices and the imposition and collection of penalties.[1][2] The Registry is also charged with conducting investigations of companies and maintaining Malta's company and partnership register.[3][4][5]

Malta Business Registry's (MBR) functions were previously held by the Registry of Companies as part of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).[6][7] The Registry of Companies became a stand-alone agency and was renamed the Malta Business Registry in 2018.[8][9] Its new offices were inaugurated in Zejtun by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in June 2019.[10][11] It was claimed that the MBR would be the first government agency to run on blockchain technology to increase transparency and reduce bureaucratic procedures.[12] The Registry's online system, first developed in 2004, was slated for replacement by the end of 2020.[13] The agency is expected to be fully digitised and paperless by 2021.[14]

The agency had approximately 96,000 companies on its books in 2020[15][16] and reported a net increase of 4,472 new companies registered in 2019.[17][13] MBR reported an operational surplus of €10 million on an income of €16 million for financial year 2019.[18][14] Investments in fixed assets also totalled €6 million for the year.[13][19]

In 2019, Malta's anti-money laundering regime was found to be inadequate by an expert review of the Council of Europe (Moneyval).[20][21] The OECD similarly noted a lack of relevant information on commercial entities and the low annual filing rates of companies.[22][23][24] University of Malta research also confirmed a "tendency to comply only at a superficial level with the principles of good corporate governance" in Malta.[25][26] This lack of transparency, it was suggested, would not fully protect the interests of these entities' shareholders and trading partners.[25]

Subsequently, legislation was enacted requiring the accurate publication of ownership and financial data of Malta listed companies.[27][28] Random sampling assessments were then initiated in Spring 2020 by the MBR[29][30] and 10,000 non-compliant entities were struck-off the registry.[31][32] As of December 2020, despite being listed as active (and in purportedly good standing) some companies had still not submitted the requisite information for at least the last five years.[33][34] In July 2020, Joseph Farrugia, the Registry CEO, had stated that 54,000 listed companies (out of circa 95,000) conformed to MBR regulation.[35][15] The proportion of materially non-compliant companies listed on Malta's registry remains unclear.[29]

Despite the dramatic growth of penalty amounts for non-compliance, critics argue that financial penalties alone are not an effective enforcement tool for the Maltese regulator.[36][37] It was proposed that the publication of the status of each non-compliant company (publication of warnings, judicial letters and court filings) should also make part of the remedy.[36][38]