MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sameer K Tegally, Sonia Xavier and Ashvan Luckraz, Venture Law
panies with an annual turnover of MUR100 million or less, or to charitable foundations. • New Companies, partnerships, and foun - dations will now be required to maintain a written declaration from their beneficial or ultimate beneficial owners confirming their ownership status. In the event of any change in their status, they will also be required to update the declaration. Concerning exist - ing entities, they must comply with this new • The approval of the FSC will not be required for the issue or transfer of shares to existing shareholders that do not result in a change of control. • Licensees listed on securities exchanges, other than those in Mauritius, will be exempt from the requirement to seek the approval of the FSC when there are transfers of shares that do not result in a change in control. • The holders of a global business licence will, at all times, be required to have at least two directors and the FSC will have to be kept informed of any change in directors within seven days. • Bullion banking will be introduced as a new authorised private banking activity. Banks licensed to exclusively carry out private bank - ing business will be allowed to, inter alia, buy, requirement by 30 June 2026. Financial and Banking Sector hold, store or sell gold and other precious metals, positioning Mauritius as a regional bullion and wealth management hub. • A dedicated licensing framework will be set up for wealth management and family offices enabling them to offer integrated services ranging from investment advisory to succes - sion planning. • A new legislation will be introduced in respect of electronic bills of exchange and trade
documents, facilitating end-to-end digital trade finance. • Foreign exchange swaps and other transac - tions that may be construed as the buying and selling of foreign currency under the activities of licensed foreign exchange deal - ers will fall under the scope of the Bank of Mauritius. AML/CFT • The Financial Services Commission will deploy a unified e-licensing platform inte - grated with the Centralised KYC Repository, and “Known to the Commission” will assist applicants on procedures, documentation, and status updates. • A national roadmap is to be implemented to prepare the Mauritius International Financial Centre for the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) Mutual Evaluation exercise scheduled for 2027 which will cover the implementation of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/ CFT) Strategy and Action Plan, conducting of thematic risk assessments to address sector specific vulnerabilities, introduction of new legislation to address identified gaps and deployment of advanced financial intelligence software to support analysis and dissemina - tion of suspicious transaction reports. • Amendments are to be made to the Co-oper - atives Act to, inter alia, strengthen the AML/ CFT supervisory framework for credit unions by defining the AML/CFT supervisory func - tions of the Registrar of Co-operative Socie - ties, introducing a risk-based approach to supervision of credit unions, and establishing an appeal mechanism against decisions of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies.
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