This Is Guernsey

A HUGE change to way the companies are registered will be quicker, cost less and be of benefit to the island as Mark Whiteley, registrar of companies designate, explains… THE summer will see major changes to Guernsey’s business environment that will be of benefit to the whole community.

In July, the processes for the formation and registration of companies, which have remained largely unchanged since the first one was incorporated in 1883, will be radically revised when the new Companies Law comes into force and new Company Registry is opened.

The registry will be based in the Markets and there will be a new team led by an independent registrar of companies.

It will transform services to the public, to the finance industry, the wider business community and for government as we move from a court-based system to an online automated process which will be cheaper, faster and more customer-friendly.

For instance, at the moment it can take about 10 days to form a company and costs are high with professional fees, document duty, court fees and printing costs adding up to several hundreds of pounds.

Once the new registry is in place, the maximum time for incorporation will be 24 hours and this will cost about £100, excluding professional fees.

Incorporations within two hours will be available for a higher fee and for certain types of company and in certain conditions, 15 minute ’special’ incorporations will be possible.

No other jurisdiction anywhere can offer this ’special’ service.

It will be quicker and cheaper to form a company in Guernsey than, for instance, in the British Virgin Islands.

At present, while there are just under 19,000 Guernsey companies administered in the island, there are many more BVI companies administered here, which means that Guernsey corporate service providers are providing an income stream to another country.

The new registry will mean that more of this business can be kept in Guernsey for the benefit of local businesses and the government.

The new self-financing registry is forecast to generate just under £9m. to the States per year once it is fully operational - vital income for the government.

In addition, many new services will be made available.

Searches for company information, filing of resolutions, making changes to directors and registered offices, requesting electronic or physical copies of documents will all be available online.

The annual return, a labour intensive paper-based process at present, will be replaced by an annual validation, whereby companies will be presented with the information held about them on the register and simply asked to validate that it is correct.

The registry team will be on hand to assist the public to take advantage of these and other new services and to explain how the new systems work.

The www.guernseyregistry.com website will be launched next month with further useful information about the registry.

This will become the main entry to the online registry when it is launched.

The modernisation brought about by the new registry will promote Guernsey companies, provide a much-improved, cheaper service to all concerned and lead to growth and income which will benefit the island as a whole.