Commerce Minister Simon Power has asked officials to provide advice to him on whether key aspects of company registration could be strengthened.

This follows concerns recently expressed about New Zealand's company registration process.

Mr Power says he has asked officials to report to him on several matters, including whether:

•New Zealand-registered companies should be required to have a New Zealand resident director (consistent with requirements in other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, and Singapore).
•Directors should be required to provide date-of-birth information to the Registrar of Companies, to help verify their identity.
•The provision of a tax number should be a requirement for all companies upon registration. About 70% of new companies already take advantage of the service offered by the Companies Office to apply for a tax number on incorporation.
•The Registrar should be able to suspend the registration of companies where there are concerns about the bona fides of people involved or the integrity of information supplied in relation to a company.

Mr Power said the Registrar of Companies had advised that recently there had been an increase in New Zealand company registrations with only overseas directors and shareholders.

"There have been about 56 such companies registered out of a total of 1,125 since 1 January this year, so that's a particular area I'm looking at.

"However, I'd like to stress that we won’t be rushing into any changes. We'll canvas the views of interested parties before deciding on the best course of action.

"New Zealand has a highly efficient and effective regime for registering companies, and it's essential we maintain that.

"We must also maintain a balance between ensuring the level of integrity of information lodged with the Companies Office and the costs of compliance for business.

"We don’t want to move to a situation where legitimate businesses are faced with increased compliance and where it's harder to start and operate a company.

"We have an excellent reputation of being a country where it's easy to do business, and we must not allow that to be harmed.

"The Financial Action Taskforce's (FATF) recent assessment of New Zealand's compliance with its international anti-money laundering and terrorist financing standards shows we are on a par with our major trading partners. We were assessed as being compliant with 13 of the 16 FATF core recommendations."

Mr Power said the Registrar of Companies was continuing to investigate those involved with the registration of SP Trading Ltd.

"But I'm advised that on the information available there is nothing that could have been done under the current company registration requirements to prevent the registration of SP Trading Limited, or its activities."

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