Written by Last Updated on June 20, 2022
The Malta Business Register (MBR) has published its Annual Report and Financial Statements for the financial year ending 31 December 2019. The report provides an overview of the activities and work performed throughout the year by the MBR. Furthermore, the report includes a summary of the performance of the Registry during 2019 as well as an outlook into the future.
Throughout 2019, the MBR mainly focused on establishing itself as a new government agency, with an insight in the implementation of the recommendations by Moneyval report to further strengthen its regulatory oversight. In 2019, the Agency created the Compliance Unit to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance, to ensure effectiveness in the mitigation of ML/FT risks relating to companies’ obligations. Furthermore, the MBR focused on the legal developments through implementation of several innovative internal and external initiatives which improved overall governance and compliance of the ultimate ownership register.
The Annual Report also looks at 2020 and beyond, with the MBR continuing to reinforce its compliance, enforcement functions to ensure that it is equipped to achieve the regulatory objectives which the law requires it to pursue. The following are the key highlights from the Annual Report:
In 2019 MBR registered 4,472 commercial partnerships bringing the total number of registrations to 98,090.
- The year 2019 marks the MBR’s re-branding campaign (the MBR was previously known as the ROCA). This included the MBR’s relocation to Zejtun and its demerger from the MFSA. Consequently, the MBR felt the need to expand its methods of operations, this involved the establishment of new Units within the MBR including: The Legal and Enforcement Unit, the Compliance Unit, the International Affairs, Research and Communications Unit, the Human Resources Development Unit, the Finance and Administration Unit, and the Information Communications Technology Unit. Shortly after the MBR’s relocation, the International Corporate Taxation Unit set up offices in the MBR’s premises together with Tech.mt and Finance Malta.
Within its first year as a standalone agency the MBR also managed to achieve several achievements, these include the National Enterprise Support Award and the Equality Mark Certification. The MBR also participated in the 2019 Delta Summit.
In publishing this report, Mr. Joseph Farrugia, Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Business Registry, stated that the extensive changes undertaken by the MBR brought forth good results for the Agency, “Through enhancing corporate governance, facilitating business, ensuring better regulation and modernising Maltese company law, the MBR has concentrated on Malta’s competitiveness and position as a financial and commercial player in the international arena.” Mr. Farrugia also commented on plans in store for the future of the MBR: “In the longer term, we plan to provide our customers with an improved experience by making the MBR’s services available on our online platform via blockchain technology. We initiated this project to implement the Registry’s information technology (IT) strategy to better cope with accelerated technology advancement in the ever-changing business environment. We will also continue implementing company law to foster Malta’s competitiveness as an ideal place to do business.”
The Malta Business Registry reported a surplus of €10,191,654 for the financial year 2019. The total operating expenses amounted to €5,231,507 with an investment of €6,262,577 in Fixed Assets additions, whilst generated an income of €15,934,040.
A copy of the MBR’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2019 is available and can be downloaded from the MBR’s website by using the following link: https://mbr.mt/annual-report-2019/