Cyprus Company Registry (2025 Update)

Cyprus has long been associated with financial secrecy and offshore structures, particularly among high-net-worth individuals from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Despite reforms, it remains a difficult register to use. While basic information is publicly available, financial crime professionals conducting enhanced due diligence on Cypriot companies face several bottlenecks in accessing company information. 

Critical information, such as shareholder filings, must be obtained via paid access, while some key company filings can only be obtained via in-person visits to the registry itself. 

This article is for financial crime professionals struggling to access company information in Cyprus. It covers Cyprus’s latest AML reforms, accessing the register, and obtaining beneficial ownership data. 

The Cyprus Corporate Registry: A Secrecy Haven?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cyprus positioned itself as an offshore financial centre (OFC), targeting businesspeople from Russia and Eastern Europe. 

By 2010, the country’s banking sector had swelled to a state nine times larger than the Cypriot domestic economy.

Post 2013 Reforms

This came to an end in 2013, when the country was hit by a financial crisis – a result of Cypriot banks facing a rapid increase in non-performing loans owing to their exposure to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. 

The banking system was on the verge of collapse, and the Cypriot government asked for a bailout from the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. 

The terms were simple: Cyprus was to end its status as an offshore tax haven. 

The primary reforms included: 

• Raising its flat corporate tax rate to a globally competitive 12.5%.

• Participation in the OECD’s Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) program: aka, automatic and compulsory sharing of financial account information for non-citizen account holders with their home tax authorities. 

Leaks From Cyprus Confidential

Despite the official reforms of 2013, the continued existence of financial secrecy infrastructure was exposed by the "Cyprus Confidential" investigation. 

This global offshore investigation, based on 3.6 million leaked files spanning from the mid-1990s to April 2022, found that 67 of the 105 Russian billionaires on the 2023 Forbes list had used Cypriot firms to hide wealth from Western sanctions. 

The leaks showed that Russian oligarchs transferred large sums of assets to Cyprus after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and implicated major international accounting firms like PwC and Deloitte in facilitating these transfers for sanctioned individuals. 

The Cyprus Department of the Registrar of Companies

The Department of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property (DRCIP) is the central authority for maintaining official corporate and intellectual property records in Cyprus. 

Its core functions extend beyond a simple company register. The department is also responsible for maintaining registers for partnerships, business names, trademarks, patents, and industrial designs. 

Additionally, the DRCIP is tasked with administering the properties of insolvent legal and natural persons, providing a central point for information on companies in various stages of dissolution.   

Types of Legal Entities and Their Registration

A wide range of business entities can be registered in Cyprus, with the most common being the Private Limited Company (LTD) and the Public Limited Company. 

Other structures include Sole Proprietorships, General and Limited Partnerships, and branches of overseas companies. 

The Company Formation Process 

• Submit a proposed name to the Registrar for approval. 

• Once a name is approved, a Cypriot lawyer is required to file the relevant documents, including the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association. 

• According to Cypriot law, every registered company must appoint at least one director and a company secretary, who can be either individuals or corporate entities. 

How to Search for a Cyprus Company

1. Go To the Official Website. https://efiling.drcor.mcit.gov.cy/DrcorPublic/SearchForm.aspx?sc=0&cultureInfo=en-AU

2. Search For A Company. Type in a company’s name or number. 

3. View the Options. Click one. 

4. See Results. You will see basic company details:

• Name

• Registration Number

• Company Type

• SubType

• Name Status (Current)

• Registration Date

• Organisation Status (Active or Dissolved)

• Status Date

5. Refine Search. You will also see the registered office, directors and secretaries, and the option to preview filed documents. 

How to Download Cyprus Company Filings

You need to create an account with the Cyprus Registry to purchase and download documents. 

1. Click ‘Study File’ In The Search Bar. 

2. Create An Account. 

3. Search For A Company. 

4. Select Company. Click ‘More details’.

5. View Documents. Click ‘Submit’. All the company filings will be added to your E-Basket. 

6. Pay and Submit. The bulk company filing downloads cost €10. These will become available on your account to download for 24 hours and will then be deleted. 

Remember: Download instantly, or you will be forced to pay for the documents again. 

Available Documents: 

• Financial Audit

• Annual Return (Form HE32): Provides an updated snapshot of the company’s structure, including details of directors and shareholders.

• Allottment of Shares

• Alteration of Officers

• Increase in Nominal Capital. 

How to Access Beneficial Ownership Information in Cyprus

Since the ECJ’s ruling on November 22, 2022, the Cyprus Registrar of Companies has suspended public access to its previously open UBO Register. 

Who Can Access It?

Access is currently provided only to “competent and supervisory authorities” and to “obliged entities” such as financial institutions and lawyers, but only in the context of performing Customer Due Diligence (CDD). 

After approval, financial crime teams can request access for a fee of €3.50 per entity. 

Remember: The register only maintains current records from March 12, 2021, onwards, with no historical data preserved.   

Regulatory Changes (2024 Amendments)

On December 6, 2024, significant amendments were made to the law: 

• Personal Liability: Failing to submit Beneficial Ownership information will now apply only to the company or legal entity itself, not its officers. The liability for directors is now limited to sharing responsibility for paying any penalties imposed on the company. 

• Financial Penalty: The fines were also substantially reduced: the initial fine was cut from €200 to €100, and the daily penalty was lowered from €100 to €50. The maximum total penalty was capped at €5,000, a significant reduction from the previous €20,000 limit. 

• Enforcement Backtracking: All financial penalties imposed since April 1, 2024, were revoked and refunded, and the deadlines for filing were extended to January 31, 2025, for UBO information and March 31, 2025, for the 2024 data confirmation process.   

Takeaway: This shows a clear trend: the political will to enforce transparency may be waning in Cyprus. Regulated entities must ensure they use underlying shareholder data to verify UBOs of Cypriot entities. 

Problems With Accessing Company Data in Cyprus

• Language Barriers: Most company documents are PDFs written in Greek, which makes extracting data from them extremely time-consuming. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology can help translate company filings.

• Corporate Service Providers & Nominees: Corporate service providers are common in Cyprus, many of them acting as nominee directors and secretaries of Cypriot companies. This can obscure ownership on a surface-level reading, requiring enhanced due diligence. 

• Document Retrieval: Some documents, such as Memorandums, Articles of Association, Annual Accounts, Certificates of Shareholders, Capital Statements and Changes of Name, are saved in physical archives and must be viewed and scanned in person. 

Remember: Companies like Kyckr do that work for you.

Processing Times

• Online searches: Instant results.

• Document purchases: Information delivered within 12 hours of order.

• Physical document requests: Up to 12 business days, depending on archive location.

• UBO access approvals: 1-3 business days for qualified entities.

Make Your Organisation FATF-Compliant

Relying solely on the Cyprus Register isn’t enough when conducting customer due diligence. Being a secrecy jurisdiction, many Cypriot companies use nominee directors connected to offshore tax havens. This requires cross-border verification capabilities. 

Kyckr provides live access to company data from 300+ official company registers worldwide, enabling cross-border UBO verification of complex corporate structures, even when UBO data isn’t available.