A Cayman Islands company’s register of members, beneficial ownership register, financial statements, books of account, and register of mortgages and charges are not open to public inspection and are not filed with the Cayman Islands General Registry. These records are held privately, typically by the company’s registered office provider, and are only accessible to authorised persons such as the company’s own officers and auditors, or Cayman Islands regulatory and law enforcement authorities acting under statutory powers.
Register of members
Every company must maintain a register of members recording its shareholders, but the Cayman Islands General Registry has no access to it and does not publish it. As the General Registry’s own guidance confirms, “the public does not have access to the register of members from the office of the Registrar.”
Beneficial ownership register
Companies in scope of the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act, 2023 must maintain a beneficial ownership register, but it is reported centrally to the Competent Authority rather than the General Registry, and access is restricted to designated Cayman Islands authorities and a narrow category of applicants who demonstrate a legitimate interest.
Financial statements and books of account
Exempted companies are not required to file annual accounts with any Cayman Islands authority, and their books of account can be kept anywhere in the world, provided the registered office is told where. Only entities regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) face separate financial reporting obligations to their regulator.
Register of mortgages and charges
Unlike jurisdictions such as the UK, the Cayman Islands does not operate a public central register of company charges; a company’s register of mortgages and charges is a private, internal record.
Confidentiality is one of the structural reasons fund managers and international businesses choose Cayman entities, but it operates alongside, not instead of, the beneficial ownership and regulatory reporting obligations described elsewhere on this site.
Related questions: What information about a Cayman Islands company is publicly available? | What privacy protections are available to shareholders and directors of a Cayman Islands company?
wb.group maintains statutory registers and confidential records for its Cayman Islands clients as part of its registered office and corporate services.
FAQs
A Cayman Islands company’s register of members, beneficial ownership register, financial statements, books of account, and register of mortgages and charges are not open to public inspection and are not filed with the Cayman Islands General Registry. These records are held privately, typically by the company’s registered office provider, and are only accessible to authorised persons such as the company’s own officers and auditors, or Cayman Islands regulatory and law enforcement authorities acting under statutory powers.
No. The register of members is a private record. The Cayman Islands General Registry does not hold or publish it.
No, not with the Cayman Islands General Registry. Exempted companies have no general requirement to file accounts, though entities regulated by CIMA have separate reporting obligations to their regulator.
It is held in a beneficial ownership register maintained privately, typically by the company’s registered office provider, and reported to the Competent Authority. It is not published on the General Registry.
Yes. Cayman Islands regulatory and law enforcement authorities, including the Financial Reporting Authority and CIMA, have statutory powers to access a company’s private registers and records when investigating financial crime.