2. ECRF / CRF Survey of 2008 Annika Bränström Swedish Companies Registration Office

3. Goal Gather and compare annually data on: – Company registration practices – New registrations, total registrations and business terminations

4. Survey questions About the organization Company registration process Business terminations Annual accounts Online services European companies (only for ECRF members) Share capital Data on registrations New questions for ECRF 2008 Refusal of bankruptcy Transfer of seats

6. ECRF participants of 2008 Austria * Czech Republic Denmark * Estonia * Finland * France * Great Britain * Guernsey (new) Hungary Ireland * Isle of Man Italy * Jersey * Latvia * Liechtenstein * Lithuania * Luxembourg * Netherlands * Norway * Portugal (new) Romania * Serbia Slovenia Spain (x2 registrars) Sweden * Switzerland * (27 registrars of 32) (* trend available for 18 registrars)

7. CRF participants of 2008 Australia * Botswana (new) Canada * Cook Islands Hong Kong * India * Malaysia * New Zealand * Pakistan * Samoa Singapore * South Africa * Sri Lanka United Kingdom * Zambia (15 registrars of 21) (* trend available for 10 registrars)

10. Type of structure versus type of organization TypeCentralizedDecentralizedOther GovernmentalECRFDenmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Guernsey, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Sweden Austria, Ireland, Isle of Man, Lithuania, Romania, Switzerland CRFBotswana, Canada, Cook Islands, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Samoa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom Australia, India, Zambia Singapore Court of justiceECRFCzech Republic, Slovenia(Germany*), Hungary OtherECRFFrance, SerbiaItaly, NetherlandsSpain CRFMalaysia, Pakistan * Non-respondents data is from 2007

14. What fees and charges do you collect ? ECRFCRF count% % Information fees 25931279 Company formation fees 248915100 Some services are free of charge 23851279 Application fees for changes 22811386 Fees for reg. of annual accounts 1348857 Other fees 13481279 Annual fees to keep a company on the register 622850

15. What are the most frequent changes in your companies register? ECRFCRF count% % Change of particulars for Director or Secretary22811493 Change of address of registered office17631173 Change of business/company name933853 Increase/Decrease in capital933853 If other, please specify311320 Change of accounting reference date2 7 17

16. Processing times for formation/incorporation ECRFCRF maxmedianmaxmedian goal in workdays 7231 average number of workdays 72,552 minimum number of workdays 2131 maximum number of workdays 306603,5

18. Processing times for changes ECRFCRF maxmedianmaxmedian goal in workdays 7362 average number of workdays 10372 minimum number of workdays 3141 maximum number of workdays 30672,5

19. Most popular means of communication regarding filed documents ECRFCRF count% % Letter259314100 Phone19701386 E-mail18671064 Fax622964 Sms311214 Other311421 Portugal Spain x2 New Zealand Singapore

21. ECRF Analysis: Differences in most popular means of communication

22. How do you examine the company/business names Company nameBusiness name ECRFCRFECRF (n=14)CRF (n=6) count% % % % formally 19701067964467 legally 23851387964583 against national trademark database 830427214233 against ALICANTE trademark database 415 ** 17 ** against companies register 22851493964467 don't examine at all 1400214117 * not available for CRF members Lithuania Spain Sweden Finland

23. Lithuania Spain Sweden Finland (*)

25. What payment methods do you accept ECRFCRF Count%count% Cash 22811387 Online payments 18671173 Major credit/debit cards 17631067 Bank draft/checks 16 59 1387 Invoice 1348427 Money orders 1244960 Deposit accounts 1141853 Postal/money orders 1037960 If other, please specify 726427

27. Do you register / decide on the following types of business termination decide onregister ECRFCRFECRFCRF count% % % % Bankruptcy 1400217800 Wind up/ Liquidation 114132024891387 Merger 93342724891067 Strike off 1763117322811280 Austria

28. How do you accept annual accounts ECRF (n=22)CRF (n=11) count% % By mail (hard copy) 1882872 Electronically (other format) 1359436 Electronically (XBRL) 731218 By e-mail (pdf, word format, etc.) 314218 By fax (paper copy) 1500 If other, please specify 1045764 Netherlands Liechtenstein Latvia

30. What formats of the annual accounts are available to the public ECRF(n=22)CRF(n=11) count% % pdf/ps/eps 2195545 scanned images 1464545 tiff/giff 6273 rtf/doc 31419 If other, please specify 1255436

32. Do you charge penalty fees for the late filing of annual accounts (excluding non-respondents) ECRFCRF count% % Yes18751292 No6251 8

38. Graph shows mean percentage filed on time Dotted lines are maximum and minimum percent filed on time Data on ECRF-members that have not answered 0%

39. Shown: difference between members mean percentage filed on time by penalty fee (yes/no) Data on ECRF-members that have not answered 0%

44. Which institution performs a legal check of transfer of seat process? (NEW) ECRF (n=16) Count% Our registry1275 Public notary425 Governmental authority00 Other institutions425

45. When leaving your jursidiction do you wait for it’s new registration in the other country? (NEW) ECRF (n=16) Count% We do not delete such leaving entities 319 Yes, we wait for the other registry before deletion 1169 No, we do not necessarily wait for the other registry before deletion 16

46. If you delete such entities that transfers their seat, do you notify the entity’s new registry of your deletion? (NEW) ECRF (n=16) Count% No 1063 Yes, we notify the central registry 213 Yes, we notify the local registry 16 Yes, we notify to other authorities 16