Business Registers in Guernsey: The Guernsey Registry

Overview

Guernsey, a Crown Dependency in the English Channel, runs all of its company data through a single official source: the Guernsey Registry. The Registry supports the Registrar, a public office holder whose statutory duty is to receive and retain basic information about legal entities and their beneficial owners, and to make some of that information publicly available. Companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and foundations are all created by filing with the Registrar, so there is no parallel commercial register to reconcile.

The island's economy is heavily oriented towards financial and fiduciary services, and corporate structures are typically administered by licensed Corporate Service Providers (CSPs). For KYB, the Registry anchors identity, status, officers and constitutional documents. Basic facts are free to search online, but two categories of data sit outside the public register entirely: shareholdings, which the Registrar does not hold, and beneficial ownership, which is kept on a separate secure register. Both are covered below.

Official Registers

The Guernsey Registry

The Guernsey Registry maintains the registers for companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and foundations under the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 and the sector-specific laws for each form. Since December 2023, all searching and filing runs through the new Online Services Portal, which replaced the legacy greg.gg system.

Searches can be performed without logging in. Basic company information — registered office address, registration date, company status and economic activity code — is available free of charge. The Registry holds, among other records: the certificate of incorporation, the company name and any former names, the company type, the registered office, the register of directors (name, service address, residential address, nationality, business occupation and date of birth), the resident agent, the memorandum and articles, and special and waiver resolutions. Not all of these records are public; the Registry marks which fields form part of the publicly available register.

Director details are obtained by ordering a Statement of the Register, a paid extract. The Registry does not keep shareholder information, so ownership cannot be retrieved from this source at all.

Charity and Non-Profit Register

Charities and Non-Profit Organisations are registered on the same portal under the Charities and Non Profit Organisations (Registration) (Guernsey) Law, 2008. The register records the organisation's officers — typically a Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary — and its filed statements. Registration is compulsory for organisations with gross assets of £100,000 or more, gross annual income of £20,000 or more, or activity that involves raising or distributing funds outside the Bailiwick; smaller organisations may register voluntarily.

Register of Beneficial Ownership

Guernsey established a central register of beneficial ownership under the Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons (Guernsey) Law, 2017. Resident agents file beneficial ownership declarations, but the register itself is held within the States of Guernsey's secure systems and is not public. Access is restricted to a limited number of authorised persons for law-enforcement purposes and GFSC supervisory activity; resident agents cannot even view the data they have filed through the public portal.

Following the Court of Justice of the European Union's WM & Sovim judgment, Guernsey concluded that unrestricted public access would breach privacy obligations and has instead widened access along two separate tracks. Since August 2025, Bailiwick obliged entities (supervised persons subject to customer due diligence) can obtain beneficial ownership information for a lawful purpose. A second, broader "legitimate interest" track — intended for parties such as journalists and civil-society organisations connected to combating financial crime — is still at the proposal stage: the States of Guernsey published a consultation on 27 February 2026 that closed on 10 April 2026, and the framework has not yet been enacted. Its timing is uncertain, though likely to align with the EU's AMLD6 deadline of July 2026.

For KYB purposes the practical position is: an obliged entity supervised in the Bailiwick can reach the register today; anyone else, including obliged entities outside the Bailiwick, cannot yet, and unconditional public access is not part of the model.

Registration and Publication Requirements

Companies

An application to incorporate a company can only be made by a licensed CSP. Every company must have at least one director, a registered office in Guernsey, a founder member and a resident agent. All companies must file an annual validation between 1 January and the last day of February, confirming the company's details as at 31 December; annual validations are available for public inspection, and late filing triggers a civil penalty and possible strike-off.

Crucially, there is no requirement to file annual accounts with the Registry. Accounts are sent to members within 12 months of the financial year end. Companies must appoint an auditor unless members pass a waiver resolution, though "large companies" and GFSC-regulated entities cannot waive audit. Because accounts are not filed publicly, financial statements are not available through the register.

Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships

Limited Partnerships (with or without separate legal personality) and Limited Liability Partnerships register under the Limited Liability Partnerships (Guernsey) Law, 2013 and the limited partnership legislation. They appear on the portal, file change-of-particulars submissions, and obtain register statements in the same way as companies. General partnerships and trusts are treated as legal arrangements rather than legal persons and are not registered.

Foundations

Guernsey foundations are registered under the Foundations Law and are governed by a council, with an optional guardian providing oversight. They file constitutional and governance documents and are subject to the same statement and certificate facilities as companies.

Charities and Non-Profit Organisations

Charities and NPOs file an annual validation and maintain their officer details on the charity portal. Their register statements are issued free of charge, unlike the paid statements for commercial entities.

Sole Traders

Sole traders are not in the company register. A self-employed individual registers only with the Guernsey Revenue Service for tax purposes; there is no incorporation, no annual validation and no public filing.

With Topograph

Topograph reads Guernsey entity data directly from the Guernsey Registry, covering companies, limited partnerships, LLPs, foundations and charities/NPOs.

Available Data

• Legal name, registration number (prefixed, e.g. `CMP10001`, `FND167`, `LP2075`) and any previous names
• Legal form (local label and standardized English category) and entity status
• Incorporation or registration date and registered office address
• Economic activity (the Registry's own classification, with NACE and ISIC inferred)
• Legal representatives: directors, councillors, members, general partners, chairpersons and guardians
• Other key persons: resident agents, secretaries and treasurers

Shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners are not available, as neither is held on the public register.

Available Documents