On 23 August 2021, the new Inspection Regime (“Inspection Regime”) under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) came into effect. It applies to both Hong Kong-incorporated companies and registered non-Hong Kong companies and has been implemented in three phases. Phase 3 of the new inspection regime will come into effect from 27 December 2023, allowing directors and other relevant individuals to apply to withhold their protected information from public inspection.

The Companies Registry has announced the adoption of an Unique Business Identifier for all entities under the administration of the Registrar of Companies on 27 December 2023 and revised 117 specified forms to take effect from the same date.

Phase 2 of the new inspection regime of the register of the Companies Registry will come into effect from 24 October 2022, allowing Hong Kong companies to, among others, limit disclosure to the public certain personal information of their directors and secretaries. Under Phase 2 of the New Inspection Regime, the usual residential address and full identification number of directors and company secretaries will be replaced with the correspondence address and partial IDNs. Protected Information contained in documents filed for registration on or after 24 October 2022 will not be available for public inspection although Specified Persons may apply to access the Protected Information.

Until now, any member of the public can obtain through a standard company search information regarding the residential addresses and personal identification numbers of directors and company secretaries of Hong Kong-registered companies on the register of the Companies Registry. In light of the growing concern about the availability and use of personal information, an inspection regime to protect such personal information was included in the new Companies Ordinance (Cap 622).

The Companies Ordinance (Chapter 622 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (the “CO”) has been further amended by the Companies (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance 2018 (the “Amendment Ordinance”). The new amendments (subject to exceptions) will come into force on 1 February 2019. Major amendments include expanding the scope for simplified…