Grenada Company Privacy: Public vs. Confidential Records

Company Privacy in Grenada: What Foreign Owners Need to KnowCopy link to section

Company privacy in Grenada rests on two pillars: a corporate register that publishes little, and an International Business Company (IBC) regime under which the names of directors and shareholders are not part of any public record. The commercial register is administered by the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office (CAIPO), which sits within the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and there is no publicly searchable online company database open to the general public.

This article explains what a foreign owner can keep private, what regulators and tax authorities can still see, and where the confidentiality stops. It is most relevant to non-resident investors, holding-structure owners, and advisers weighing an IBC or a private limited company against disclosure-heavy jurisdictions elsewhere.

The Legal Framework Governing Corporate Confidentiality in GrenadaCopy link to section

Two statutes set the boundaries of what stays private. Domestic firms operate under the Companies Act (Cap 58A of the 2010 Revised Laws of Grenada, as amended by Act No. 5 of 2022), while the International Business Companies Act governs the IBC, the vehicle built for offshore and cross-border use.

Privacy is structural rather than declared in a single confidentiality clause. The legislation requires minimal public reporting, and for IBCs in particular, ownership information generally stays outside any record a third party can pull.

Grenada engages with the OECD and the Financial Action Task Force, which shapes the limits of that privacy. Confidentiality from the general public coexists with information-sharing duties owed to regulators and foreign tax authorities, a distinction that runs through the rest of this article.

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What Company Information Is Publicly Accessible at the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property OfficeCopy link to section

CAIPO maintains the register, but confidentiality rules keep parts of it closed. The principal document a requester can obtain is a company profile, an extract showing the entity's information as it stood at the time of the request.

Personal data is not released in these extracts, and searches carry a fee. A business name search costs XCD 5, and reserving a name costs XCD 25.

Filing obligations and public visibility are not the same thing. At incorporation, a company submits details of its directors, shareholders, and registered office through a Notice of Directors form, but that submission is a regulatory filing rather than an open public record.

Foreign companies registering a presence face an additional disclosure. Under section 344 of the Companies Act, an external company must file a statement giving its name, place and date of incorporation, and particulars of its corporate instruments.

Statutory registers exist alongside the official filing. Every company keeps internal registers of members, directors, and charges, but these are company records, not documents the public can freely inspect.

What Stays Confidential: Information Shielded from the Public RecordCopy link to section

The IBC regime is where privacy is strongest. Directors' and shareholders' names are not publicly accessible, and an IBC can operate with a single director and a single shareholder, each of whom may be an individual or a corporate body.

Financial opacity reinforces the structure. IBCs are not required to file annual financial statements or to undergo audits, which removes a common route through which ownership and performance data otherwise reach the public.

No residency test applies to IBC directors or shareholders. Fully non-resident ownership is permitted, and registry inquiries on some entities may return no usable information because personal data is withheld from public extracts.

The precise statutory wording behind this shielding is not something we cite here, because the exact section of the International Business Companies Act protecting beneficial owner identity from the public record could not be confirmed from official sources. The practical effect, supported across the IBC framework, is that owner identity does not surface in public extracts.

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The Beneficial Ownership Disclosure Regime and Who Can Access ItCopy link to section

Beneficial ownership and public visibility point in opposite directions. Owner identity stays out of the register, yet international standards expect a competent authority to be able to reach that information when needed.

FATF Recommendation 24, revised in March 2022, sets that expectation. Countries must ensure authorities can obtain adequate, accurate, and current information on the true owners of companies, held either in a public-authority register or through an alternative mechanism that allows efficient access.

Grenada is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF). A 2022 CFATF Mutual Evaluation found a number of strategic deficiencies across the country's anti-money-laundering and counter-financing framework, with a follow-up report tracking progress on the technical gaps identified.

Supervision is split between two bodies. The Grenada Authority for the Regulation of Financial Institutions (GARFIN) licenses and supervises financial institutions other than banks, while the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank oversees banks.

We do not state the form or operating status of a central beneficial ownership register here, because no official Grenadian source confirming its legal basis or operation was retrieved, and the 2022 evaluation indicated a fully compliant centralised register was not yet in place at that time. For a foreign owner, the working assumption should be that competent authorities can reach beneficial ownership data through registered agents and financial institutions even where no open register exists.

Director and Shareholder Visibility in Grenadian CompaniesCopy link to section

A private limited company, the common domestic form, needs at least one director and one shareholder, and a single person may hold both roles. Liability is limited, share transfer is restricted, and no minimum share capital applies unless the company specifies one.

For the IBC, the position on visibility is clear: director and shareholder names are not publicly accessible. Domestic companies maintain internal records, including a Register of Directors and Secretaries and a Register of Directors' Holdings, but these are statutory company registers rather than public listings.

The Notice of Directors filed with CAIPO at incorporation is a regulatory submission, not a searchable public document. Whether a third party may inspect the director register of a domestic private company on request to the registry is not something official sources confirmed, so this should not be assumed in either direction.

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The Role and Legality of Nominee Directors and ShareholdersCopy link to section

Nominee arrangements fit comfortably within the IBC structure. A single corporate or individual director and shareholder with no residency requirement, combined with minimal public reporting, leaves room for nominees to be appointed.

The statutes neither expressly authorise nor prohibit nominees. No provision regulating nominee directors or shareholders, requiring a nominee declaration, or establishing a separate nominee register was found in official sources, so the framework is best described as silent rather than permissive or restrictive.

Silence at the registry level does not mean anonymity at the compliance level. CFATF and FATF obligations require financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses to look through any nominee and identify the true beneficial owner for customer due diligence, regardless of whether the nominee arrangement is itself regulated.

Data Protection and Privacy Safeguards Under Grenadian LawCopy link to section

Grenada enacted the Data Protection Act, No. 1 of 2023, published on 10 May 2023. The legislation establishes an Information Commission to oversee compliance and handle complaints, and it sets out legal bases for processing personal and sensitive data, the governing principles, and data subject rights such as access and rectification.

The Act runs to eight parts and applies to both public and private bodies. Offences can attract fines or imprisonment, with separate penalty scales for individuals and corporate entities, and where a body corporate offends, the officers, directors, or agents who directed or took part can be personally liable.

Enforcement decisions are not final at the administrative stage. A right of appeal to the High Court lies against any enforcement notice or decision of the Information Commission.

One caveat matters for planning. Industry reporting indicates the Act had not yet entered into force, meaning its commencement date or enabling regulations had not been gazetted, so its protections over personal data held by corporate service providers are not yet operative.

When Confidentiality Gives Way: Information Sharing with Authorities and RegulatorsCopy link to section

Registry-level privacy does not extend to tax administration. A foreign owner's financial account data can be reported to their home tax authority through automatic exchange, regardless of how little appears in the public register.

Under FATCA, the Competent Authority for Grenada is the Inland Revenue Division (IRD). Grenada adopted a Model 1B (non-reciprocal) intergovernmental agreement, so local financial institutions report FATCA information to the Inland Revenue Division, which then transmits it to the IRS, and all communication with the IRS flows through that office.

The Common Reporting Standard adds a second channel. Grenada is a CRS-participating jurisdiction committed to the OECD automatic exchange framework, and its exchange relationship is classified as reciprocal, upgraded from non-reciprocal on 21 September 2021. For a non-resident owner whose home country is a CRS partner, account information will reach that authority through this standard.

AML reporting operates domestically. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank supervises banks for AML and CFT purposes while GARFIN supervises other financial institutions, and Suspicious Transaction Reports are filed with the Financial Intelligence Unit, with most activity arising in banks, credit unions, money service businesses, and insurers.

Exchange-of-information standards remain under external review. The OECD Global Forum published a peer review on Grenada in 2024 (Second Round, Phase 1), confirming continued scrutiny of how the country meets transparency benchmarks.

Practical Privacy Considerations for Non-Resident Owners and AdvisersCopy link to section

For a privacy-conscious non-resident, the IBC is the working vehicle. Director and shareholder names stay off the public record, there are no exchange controls on IBCs, and no annual financial statements or audits are required.

A local footprint is mandatory. Every IBC must keep a registered agent and a registered office, so a Grenadian service provider is a fixed compliance requirement rather than an option.

Open-source due diligence by outsiders is limited. With no public online registry, third parties cannot pull company data the way they can in many disclosure-heavy jurisdictions.

• Registry privacy does not override tax reporting. Account information of non-resident owners reaches their home tax authority through CRS, or the IRS through FATCA for US persons, irrespective of how confidential the register is.

Two further points shape the outlook. The Data Protection Act 2023 was not yet in force as of early 2026, so its safeguards over data held by service providers are not yet operative, and the 2022 CFATF evaluation's findings mean obligations on registered agents and financial institutions to identify beneficial owners may tighten as follow-up continues.

ConclusionCopy link to section

Grenada offers genuine privacy at the registry level, especially through the IBC, where owner identity stays out of any public record and there is no open online register to mine. That privacy protects you from public and commercial searches, not from competent authorities or foreign tax administrations, which reach account and ownership data through FATCA, CRS, and AML channels. Treat the IBC as a confidentiality tool, not an anonymity one, and plan on the basis that your home tax authority will likely see what the public cannot. A registered agent and ongoing compliance are part of the cost of keeping that structure in good standing.

How Expanship Can Help Your Business in GrenadaCopy link to section

Expanship advises non-resident owners on structuring for confidentiality in Grenada, from selecting between an IBC and a private limited company to meeting registered-agent duties and aligning with beneficial-ownership and exchange-of-information obligations. The same team handles the wider lifecycle of a foreign-owned entity, so privacy planning sits inside a single compliance arrangement rather than standing alone.

• Company formation and structuring for IBCs and private limited companies
• Registered agent and registered office services
• Tax registration and statutory filings
• Ongoing compliance and corporate maintenance
• Accounting and bookkeeping support
• Introductions to local and regional banking partners

To discuss a confidential structure suited to your circumstances, contact Expanship Grenada.

Frequently Asked QuestionsCopy link to section