Companies House

The Companies House leads the commercial register in the United Kingdom . Unlike in Germany, it is not a court, but an administrative authority subordinate to the Ministry of Economic Affairs with headquarters in Cardiff and branches in London and Edinburgh .

Companies House is responsible for the entry and deletion of companies from the register under UK law. It also checks and saves reportable company information and makes it available to the public for inspection. For companies in England and Wales , the head office in Cardiff or the branch in London and for Scottish companies only the branch in Edinburgh is responsible.

Controversy

Economy Secretary Vince Cable opened the Companies House registration to unauthenticated private internet users in 2011. This made it possible to set up companies with a similar effort as is necessary to create an account in social media. According to research by the Guardian from July 2019, the name information provided is not referenced, so that private individuals can found companies under false names, then open bank accounts and do business with these companies. This made the UK popular with money launderers and fraudsters who, with the help of Companies House, can decouple their true identities from their banking operations and thus avoid prosecution. In addition, a company address in the UK is considered more credible than an address in well-known tax havens, which is particularly helpful for fraudsters. Key participants in the money laundering scandal involving Danske Bank , for example, have successfully hidden their identities via Companies House. Even years later, UK politicians have not taken serious action to remedy these abuses.