Companies House Gibraltar Announces Developments To Their E-Registry
Companies House Gibraltar have today announced further developments to their e-Registry.
A statement from Companies House Gibraltar follows below:
The past months have brought with them many challenges. People and businesses have had to adapt to new ways of working and to more modern means of accessing services. Some have been better prepared for this than others. Companies House Gibraltar has been well equipped to continue the efficient running of the Registry and has adapted where necessary to meet the needs of its users. Some of our clients have made good use of our e-Registry during this time, filing documents in electronic format using their own unique identifiers (UID) as a means of authentication. We have also continued to invest in the development of our e-Registry platform and are now delighted to announce a number of new and exciting advances in this area.
Accounts Filing for Accounting Professionals.
Until now, accounting professionals have been able to deliver accounts for filing in the traditional hardcopy form on behalf of their clients, but they have not been able to take advantage of our electronic filing service to file accounts electronically for their clients. As from today a new e-Filing module will be available that will enable accountants to register with us to obtain their own UID which will then enable them to file accounts electronically on behalf of their clients. For this, the accounting professional will need to provide us with a letter confirming the names and registration numbers of their clients’ companies. As an additional safeguard, once this information has been processed by us, the secretary of each of the accountant’s client companies will receive an email notification explaining that the company's accountant has registered with Companies House Gibraltar to file accounts electronically on behalf of that company.
Profiles.
The electronic company profile service has now been accessible via our e-Registry for over eighteen years. In this time, over a quarter of a million company profiles have been obtained by users of the e Registry. During the course of last year, the company profile was enhanced and updated and electronic profiles for business names were made available. This year we are expanding this successful service to cover the registers of Private Foundations, Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships, Trade Marks and Patents.
Documents.
We have embarked on a massive scanning operation to digitise the Private Foundations, Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships, Trade Marks and Patents registers. As from today, documents kept in these registers will be available online and may be accessed in much the same way as company documents.
e-Search.
Electronic searches via our e-Registry have been available since the year 2016 for all live Gibraltar Companies. This service was extended last year to also include Business Names. We have been working to improve on this service by reducing loading times so as to make the experience more user friendly. Loading times have now been halved. Over the coming weeks the e-Search service will also be made available for Private Foundations, Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships, Trade Marks and Patents.
Electronic Annual Return.
Looking forward to next year, we are aiming to roll out an enhanced electronic annual return, that will allow users to file an e-Annual Return recording changes that have occurred since the date of the last annual return filed. It will also be possible to submit other documents that are not currently available, such as share transfers and allotment of shares via our e-Registry.
Direct Filing for Company Professionals.
Another exciting development that we are looking to introduce in the coming year is an interface program that is already under development which will enable trust and company service providers to connect their company management software to the e-Registry platform. In this way they will be able to file documents directly via the e-Registry from their own proprietary platform. This will be our main objective to be achieved in 2021 to the satisfaction of all professionals concerned.
