The legal persons can also take the form of offshore companies as any shareholder can form a company or its permitted under
bearer share certificates and many other factors.
In an effort to fight money laundering, the amendments include the abolition of
bearer share and the creation of a consortium of companies working in the field of securities.
Nescol Limited and Nielson Holdings Limited were incorporated in BVI in 1993 and 1994, respectively, and were held by one
bearer share each.
With regard to Cyprus' rating and the way forward the press release noted that "all legal and regulatory issues identified in the first phase of review were dealt with through the enactment into law of appropriate provisions, like explicitly stating in the law (in addition of common law provisions) the information that should be available on a trust, removing references to Companies' Law which allowed the issue of
bearer share warrants in public companies (a provision that does not seem to have ever been used), the need for Cyprus incorporated but not tax resident companies to file tax returns with Cypriot authorities etc.
Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations, in a statement said about HSBC and its United States affiliate HBUS: "Due to poor AML [anti-money laundering] controls, HBUS exposed the United States to Mexican drug money, suspicious travelers checks,
bearer share corporations, and rogue jurisdictions.
The public offer will be made at a 27.3% premium to the average price of the 30 days prior to the announcement, amounting to CHF57.50 per
bearer share and CHF28.75 per registered share.
They vary from -21% (Swiss Re registered share) to 67% (Pirelli
bearer share), with an average of 13%.
In 2006, the
bearer share certificates of Nielsen and Nescoll were changed into registered shares with Minerva Services Ltd whose management company was Trustee Services Ltd.
SCM has offered 0.52 shares of its common stock for every one
bearer share in Bluehill ID.
Bearer shares are authorized if the
bearer share certificates are retained in the protected custody of persons or financial institutions authorized by the Minister of Finance.