It administers the licensing regime[5] for trust and corporate service providers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance as well as the licensing regime[6] for money lenders under the Money Lenders Ordinance.

Before 1865, the companies in Hong Kong were restricted by the British Law introducing from the 29 January 1841 by Sir James John Gordon Bremer and Captain Charles Elliot.

However, the British Law wasn’t designed for the nature of the economic system in Hong Kong.

In 1962, the Companies Law Revision Committee was formed to review and improve the company legislation in Hong Kong in order to establish a more comprehensive rules regarding to the characteristics of the Hong Kong economic environment.

[7] The Companies Registry was then established on 1 May 1993 headed by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the trading fund of the Companies Registry was set up on 1 August 1993, being one of the earliest government department which operated with trading fund.

[7] In March 2021, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau proposed changes to the Companies Registry that would begin to restrict access to some of its data to the public.

[8][9] In October 2021, the government announced that the system would require users to enter in their personal information.

[7] The 1958 Ordinance was followed by the previous law, mainly to define “charitable purpose”, which the meaning was unclear before it.

the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance of 1990 and 1995 adjusted certain fee charges and started to introduce documents in Chinese.

In 1997, Hong Kong was officially handover to China from British colony, the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance of 1997 further translated the details of law to Chinese.

Some details were extending the application of deregistration from private companies only to also companies limited by guarantee, the name of Extraordinary General Meeting was changed to General Meeting, lowered the restriction of corporate director which needed at least one director to one natural person.

Annual Return and statutory documents are required for both non-Hong Kong and local companies to submit to the Companies Registry such as notice of appointment of receiver or manager, notice of mortgagee entering possession of property or notification of payment.

For charged document such as principal account, directors index search or obtaining certificate etc.

[14] “Notice of No Objection to a Company being Deregistered” should be first applied from the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.