What is Unique Business Identifier (“UBI”)? Where can a company / an entity use the UBI?

Unique Business Identifier (“UBI”) is a number that can be used to distinctly identify a legal entity.  UBI has been adopted in many other economies around the world, enabling governments and businesses to uniquely identify legal entities across various transactions and regulatory interactions.  It can be used in communication and exchange of data across government departments and businesses to reduce errors that may result from using different identifiers to identify the same entity.  The implementation of UBI helps governments to enhance public service delivery and regulate entities more effectively.

The UBI can be used in the following areas:

• Business Registration Number (“BRN”) as the UBI can be used in communication with government departments and businesses.
• Upon the implementation of UBI (i.e. 1 November 2021 for limited partnership funds and 27 December 2023 for other types of entities), the BRN shall be used in filing specified forms and documents with the Companies Registry. 
• BRN will be the key number used by the Electronic Search Services of the Companies Registry for searching and identifying a company or an entity.