The European island of Malta is looking to use blockchain technology to make its Registry of Companies agency more efficient, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, Silvio Schembri, said[1] earlier this month.
According to Schembri, the new blockchain-based system will handle all of the processes performed by the Registry of Companies and “will make possible the provision of new services which with the present system are not being provided bringing the agency.” He said the registry will be “the first in the world to be run on a blockchain-based system.”
“Through an extensive investment in IT, the Registry of Companies will be more efficient and will lessen unnecessary bureaucratic procedures,” Schembri said.
The new blockchain-based system is part of a restructuration and modernization push for the Registry of Companies, which, at the end of last year, demerged from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and established itself as a standalone agency.
The Registry of Companies is a public registry responsible for the registered information and documentation pertaining to new and existing companies.
Through the new Legal Act, the agency was given the responsibility for all assets, liabilities and obligations which were previously vested or entered by the MFSA and which emanate or arise from the functions of the agency.
Works are currently being done at the Registry of Companies’ new premises, which will be located in the South Eastern city of Żejtun.
Schembri said the need for the agency to move into new premises reflects Malta’s rapidly growing economy, and added that the new premises will form an integral part of Malta’s technological and innovative activity.
“In 2012,
