On 12 April 2022, the Cyprus authorities published a Guidance for the interim solution of the Beneficial Ownership (BO) Register, providing information aiming to assist users in filing the relevant BO information onto the interim system solution that has been developed to facilitate the collection of data for the BO register.

BO information collected through the interim solution will be migrated onto the final platform that is currently being developed. Cyprus entities and their officers/partners are obliged to identify and record electronically on the BO register all relevant information of their beneficial owners or controllers. This is also applicable to companies that provide administrative (including nominee shareholder) services to their clients. Entities must keep the BO register updated at all times.

The interim solution was developed to facilitate the collection of data required on the basis of the 4th and 5th AML Directive. A period of six months has been extended, starting from 16 March 2021 (date of implementation of the interim solution) until 31 July 2022, by which time all existing entities must have submitted their BO’s data on the system.

The responsibility for the true and accurate submission of the BO information lies with the entity itself and any of its officers. Fines and penalties may be imposed on entities and their officers that do not comply with the disclosure requirements of the regime. Penalties will be imposed once the final platform is launched on or from 31 July 2022.

The official announcement can be found here.

The Guidance can be found here.

Our recent blog post can be found here.