Implementation of Phase 3 of New Inspection Regime with effect from 27 December 2023

February 2024

The New Inspection Regime of the Companies Register (‘NIR’) under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622), which applies to Hong Kong incorporated companies and registered non-Hong Kong companies, has been fully implemented in three phases to enhance protection of personal data of directors and other individuals who appear on the Companies Register maintained by the Companies Registry (‘CR’).

In Phase 2 of the NIR which came into effect from 24 October 2022, the usual residential addresses (‘URAs’) and full identification numbers (‘IDNs’) on the Index of Directors on the Companies Register of the CR have been replaced with correspondence addresses and partial IDNs for public inspection. Besides, the URAs of directors and full IDNs of directors, company secretaries and some other individuals (such as authorised representatives of registered non-Hong Kong companies, liquidators and provisional liquidators) (‘Data Subjects’) contained in documents registered with the CR starting from the commencement of Phase 2 of the NIR (i.e. 24 October 2022) are protected from public inspection. However, the URAs and full IDNs of Data Subjects contained in documents filed with the CR before commencement of Phase 2 of the NIR remained available for public searches.

Phase 3 of the NIR was therefore implemented on 27 December 2023 to allow companies to take additional safeguards by making applications to the CR for withholding the URAs and full IDNs of Data Subjects contained in documents filed with the CR before commencement of Phase 2 of the NIR.

In this news flash, we outline the key features of Phase 3 of the NIR as well as some clarifications made by the CR on the applications.