After the enforcement of Insolvency Regime inMay 2015, the duties and responsibilities of the Insolvency Service have beenassigned to the Bankruptcy and Liquidation Section of the Department ofRegistrar of Companies and Official Receiver, as it was derived from the legalframework.
Therefore, the Bankruptcy and LiquidationSection is the competent authority since it acts as the Insolvency Service andis responsible for the implementation of all the insolvency proceedings at thenational level, as well as for the alignment and harmonization with EUlegislation.
In May 2015, the Regulation EU 2015/848, forInsolvency Proceedings entered into force aiming to ensure the proper functionof the internal market which, requires that cross-border insolvency proceedingsshould operate efficiently and effectively. It is necessary for the properfunctioning of the internal market to avoid incentives for parties to transferassets or judicial proceedings from one Member State to another, seeking toobtain a more favourable legal position to the detriment of the general body ofcreditors (forum shopping). In order to meet this goal, it was considerednecessary and appropriate, to create the mechanisms that will facilitate andenable the member-states to achieve so.
According to the Regulation (EU) 2015/848 theInsolvency Service, on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus, should maintainelectronic registers concerning various insolvency proceedings. In addition, CYinsolvency registers would be part of EU insolvency registers and accessible tothe public through the European e-Justice Portal. Currently the InsolvencyService maintains electronic registers including the bankruptcies, liquidationsand voluntary liquidations registers. Moreover, the Insolvency Service sharesinformation on its website, and provides insolvency records to variousstakeholders such as the Association of Cyprus Banks, the Cyprus BarAssociation and the Land Registry. The interconnection of the InsolvencyService with the e-Justice platform will facilitate research by any interestedparty.
Serving the priority of bringing to completionthe implementation of the interconnection of the national insolvency registersproject, the competent public sectorÕs entities in collaboration with private companiesformed a Consortium, in order to reach the projectÕs objectives within the specifiedtimeframes and taking advantage of the know -how and expertise of each member.
The project proposed a web service solution thatwill be aligned with the specifications defined by the CommissionÕs technicalteam concerning the methods of communication and information exchange; thetechnical measures regarding information technology security standards forcommunication and distribution of information within the system ofinterconnection of insolvency registers; the criteria for the search serviceprovided by the European e-Justice Portal; the minimum criteria for thepresentation of results of such searches; and the means and technicalconditions of availability of services provided by the system ofinterconnection.