Associated parties

Understanding associated parties

When you incorporate a new company, submit a new registration, or update an existing entity, you’ll need to provide details about the individuals and entities connected to that entity. These are known as associated parties.

This page explains:

• what qualifies someone as an associated party
• how the law defines roles such as beneficial owners, controllers, and nominee directors
• what data must be submitted
• who has access to this information

Providing accurate and up-to-date information on associated parties is a legal requirement. It ensures transparency, supports Jersey’s compliance with international standards, and enables us to quickly respond to requests from law enforcement and tax authorities.

Please note: this guidance is intended to support your understanding of associated party obligations. It does not replace the law. For full legal definitions and requirements, refer to the Financial Services (Disclosure and Provision of Information) (Jersey) Law 2020 and related legislation.

What is an associated party?

Associated parties are individuals, entities or organisations associated with a registered entity. They include:

• beneficial owners and controllers
• significant persons, such as directors and secretaries, as defined by the Financial Services (Disclosure and Provision of Information) (Jersey) Law 2020 (“the law”)
• other roles/functions that are defined within the individual product laws, such as nominee positions and members

The law requires each entity to provide additional associated party information. The information required differs for each associated party type, as detailed below.

Entities that do not have a nominated person appointed by a JFSC-regulated trust company service provider must provide proof of identity and address for beneficial owners, controllers and directors upon incorporation or change. Read our guidance on identification requirements.

Associated party roles

Beneficial owner and controller

Who is a beneficial owner or controller?

The Financial Services (Disclosure and Provision of Information) (Jersey) Law 2020 defines a beneficial owner of an entity as “an individual who ultimately owns or controls the entity, or the individual on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted by the entity, including an individual who exercises ultimate effective control over the entity”.

How to identify your beneficial owners and controllers

See our guidance on how to identify beneficial owners and controllers.

Beneficial owner and controller data required

• name and any former names or aliases
• address for correspondence
• residential address
• nationality
• occupation
• gender
• date of birth
• place and country of birth

Jersey property share transfer companies

Where there is:

• no beneficial owner holding 10% on incorporation, or 25% or more on a change
• and there is no other person having control through other means, for example, an adviser or management company that deals with the building on behalf of the company

then you will need to identify a person who controls the company through a position held. This is usually a director, however, there may be a number of non-active directors in a Jersey property share transfer company.

In such circumstances, the controllers are the directors with decision-making powers or executive control. 

Significant persons

Who are the significant persons?

Significant persons are the parties listed below:

Companies	Foundations	Incorporate limited partnerships, separate limited partnerships	Limited liability partnerships	Limited liability companies
Directors * Secretary	Member of the council	General partner	Partner	Manager or members involved in management

*Includes Nominee Directors and Alternate Directors

A significant person is not the same as a beneficial owner or controller, but a significant person might also be a beneficial owner or controller.

For example, a director of a company is a significant person of the company and might also be a beneficial owner through shares held.

You must provide details of all significant persons. Information on significant persons is available on the public register except for certain information specified below. 

Information needed when a significant person is an individual

Where the significant person is an individual, you must provide:

• name and any former names or aliases
• address for correspondence
• main residential address
• main occupation
• nationality
• date of birth
• place and country of birth

Correspondence address

The individual can use their residential address, the registered office, or business address as their correspondence address. A PO Box address at the registered office may be used.
The correspondence address will be public.

If you do not want your residential address to be available on the public register, you should provide a correspondence address.

Significant person information that will not be public

The following details will not be public:

• former names and aliases
• residential address (unless no correspondence address has been provided)
• day of birth (month and year will be public)
• date of incorporation or registration
• information in relation to any person under the age of 18
• information in relation to a secretary of a company (unless that person is also a director or a member)
• directors of a share transfer company (but they will be on the public register as members)

Only the nominated person for the company can see the private significant person information.

Information needed when a significant person is an entity

Where the significant person is an entity, you must provide:

• type of entity
• registered name and number
• registered office or business address
• date of incorporation or establishment

Information needed when a significant person is an organisation outside Jersey

Where a significant person is an organisation formed outside Jersey, you must provide:

• type of organisation
• registered name and number
• jurisdiction in which incorporated or established
• address of registered office
• date of incorporation or establishment

Nominee directors

What is a nominee director?

The Financial Services (Disclosure and Provision of Information) (Jersey) Order 2020 defines a nominee director as “a director of a company who in that capacity agrees to act routinely and without discretion on the direct or indirect instructions of a nominator, whether or not that director is subject to a formal nominee arrangement.”

A nominee director is a person appointed as a director of a company by a nominator. They agree to act on the instructions of that nominator, whether or not under a formal nominee arrangement.

Information needed when reporting a nominee director

If the director is a nominee director, you will need to provide the name of the nominator when entering the director information in myRegistry. You only need to provide the nominator’s name, because their full details should already be included in the beneficial owner and controller information

Alternate directors

Alternate directors are considered significant persons. If they are added to the entity’s internal register of directors, then their information must be provided under the new law. The same applies to assistant or deputy secretaries.

Corporate directors

It is a requirement of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 that a body corporate must not be a director unless:

a. the body corporate is a company, wherever incorporated, that is permitted under the terms of its registration under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 to act as, or fulfil the requirements of, a director

b. the body corporate has no director that is a body corporate

Members (shareholders)

Companies must provide us with details of the members on incorporation and confirm the information on a yearly basis through their annual confirmation statement.

The following information is required:

• name and address of each member who holds not less than 1% of all issued shares in a class
• the number of members who each hold less than 1% of all the issued shares of a class
• the class and number of shares held by each member in the above two categories

Member information will be available to the public.

The following information is needed for a guarantor member:

• name and address of each guarantor member
• maximum amount guaranteed by each guarantor member

Nominee shareholders

If an entity has issued shares to a nominee shareholder, you must tell us:

• the identity of each nominee
• the identity of each nominator, who must be an individual

unless the nominee is registered with us under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law.

Joint membership

Where two or more persons hold one or more shares in a company jointly, they shall be treated as a single member. To report the member in myRegistry:

• enter the name and address of the person listed first on the share certificate
• when you add the number of shares held, make sure to include the name of the other joint owner(s) in the joint ownership details field

Changes to your associated parties

The update associated parties submission form on myRegistry allows you to add, amend and remove associated parties.

Tell us about a change, error or inaccuracy within 21 days

You must tell us about any change, error or inaccuracy in the information we hold on beneficial owners or controllers and significant persons. All changes must be submitted within 21 days of the date of knowledge of the change.

The entity may commit an offence if we are not informed of any change within 21 days.

The Registrar can strike the entity off the register or cancel the registration of an entity that fails to update us of any change, error or inaccuracy within 21 days.

Update member information

You don’t have to update member information within 21 days, but we recommend keeping it up to date. This information is reportable when submitting the Annual confirmation statement.

You do not need to ask us for prior approval for a change.

Deceased shareholder or beneficial owner

If a shareholder or beneficial owner dies, the company must submit an updated associated parties’ form upon the death.

If the person who died was also a controller or director, you can remove those roles and add the new controller, for example, the executor of their estate.

Executors

Where a company is held by an executor of an estate, the company should identify the executor as the controller.

Data access and visibility

Beneficial owner and controller information is currently not available to the public. Only a nominated person for the entity can view this information in myRegistry.

Following legislative updates in Jersey, obliged entities can access certain personal information held by our Registry relating to beneficial owners and controllers of Jersey entities strictly for the purposes of fulfilling their client due diligence obligations under the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008 (MLO).

Only certain permitted individuals within Jersey obliged entities and their representatives will be permitted to access the Obliged Entity Beneficial Owner (OEBO) register through myJFSC. More information can be found on our accessing the Obliged Entity Beneficial Owner register page.

Making information unavailable for public inspection

A nominated person of an entity can apply to make information on the register unavailable for public inspection. We will only grant this in limited circumstances.
If we receive an application of this kind, the relevant information will remain private until a decision is made

For further information, see:

• Regulations 4 and 5 of the Financial Services (Disclosure and Provision of Information) (Jersey) Regulations 2020
• Guidance on applications to make information unavailable on the public register
• Application form to make information unavailable on the public register

Additional support

If you are unsure about any of the requirements, please contact us.

Email: [email protected]

phone: 01534 822030.

You might also find these pages helpful:

How to incorporate a company

Beneficial Ownership & Controller Guidance

Local residents - registered office policy

About companies