Malta Back Office Administration

One of the legal requirements of incorporating a company in Malta is to have a registered office address where a company will hold all statutory documents and where all legal notices will be delivered to.

Registered Office Address and Business Office Address

In order for a company to be in line with the on-going changes in International Tax Law and the shift towards ensuring that one has substance in the country from where business activities are carried out, a business office address is also required. Such address links the company to an office where the company carries out its day to day operations. This necessitates physical and technical resources to run the business and therefore this address needs to be linked to where one has the office and employees. The business office address may also be used as the registered address.

Back Office Administration

Back office services include routine administration, bookkeeping and accounting services (excluding work which requires a warrant under the Accountancy Profession Act), information and data processing, computer bureau, database and computer outsourcing, but may not include any activity or service which requires a warrant, licence or other authorisation (other than a police or trading licence) under any law in Malta. Any routine or administrative tasks that are carried out in support of any business or professional activity pertaining to a financial services concern may be hived off or out-sourced in a way as to qualify as a back office activity as required by the MFSA. Financial services activities include banking, insurance and investment services. On the other hand, all those professional and business activities which would in terms of Maltese law be subject to specific regulatory licensing and control are excluded from back office servicing. These would include the core duties of an investment services company (including a fund manager), insurance manager or a bank. The core activities of these regulated persons would normally be subject to special authorisation. However, the administration support needs of these licensable categories of persons overseas may be provided through a back office operation established in Malta.

Why set up a Back Office in Malta?

The Maltese authorities encourage the setting up of foreign operations that offer back office administration and support services to other foreign enterprises. Malta is in a good position to encourage operations of this nature because of the availability of a well-educated workforce, a high number of professionally qualified and trained personnel, coupled with the excellent telecommunication facilities and air links. Added important advantages are the very moderate and comparatively low office and employment costs. The availability of qualified and competent staff is absolutely vital for a back office operation to flourish.

The four hundred year old University of Malta and a number of other higher educational establishments annually produce a significant number of motivated students trained in modern disciplines such as computer studies and information technology, marketing and communications and the more traditional areas of law, accountancy, management, financial services and a host of other related fields of study. The Maltese labour force has always been recognised for its loyalty, flexibility, competence and work ethic. Apart from fluency in English, which is one of the Island’s national languages, most Maltese enjoy a reasonable working knowledge of other European languages primarily Italian, with French and German becoming increasingly popular.

Ownership of a back office operation

There are no restrictions on the ownership of a back office operation. It may be owned exclusively by local or foreign interests, or jointly by both. A foreign company may choose to contract out its back office administration either to a Maltese subsidiary set up for this purpose or to a Maltese-owned company capable of offering these specialised services. In the latter case the services may be offered either on some form of exclusivity basis to the foreign company or may also be offered to as many foreign entities as the local service provider can reasonably cope with. A basic qualifying condition required is that the back office service has to be provided to non-resident clients from an office set up in Malta.

In order to retain this status, the company would therefore not be in a position to supply its services to local companies or to other local commercial or professional undertakings. Subject to the above, there are no restrictions regarding the nature or nationality of the non-resident beneficiaries or recipients of the back office services. These may even consist of one or more undertakings involved in different activities and which may or may not have any ownership relationship with the back-office operation. In this sense the local back office base can offer itself as a centralised, cost-saving and flexible shared-services facility servicing a variety of needs of different clients located in one or more countries other than Malta.

Carrying out Back Office Services in Malta

An application to carry out back office services has to be submitted to the Malta Financial Services Authority. The application is to include the following:

Malta Back Office Management & Support

CSB Group offers integrated efficient and reliable Back Office Services in Malta, including Back Office Management, Support and Administration to maximise your business continuity. We provide a complete range of back-office services for local and international clients operating across varied industry sectors.

Domiciliation & Secretarial Services

Besides the Management of Companies and the day-to-day back office administration of Companies, we offer company domiciliation services (including back office management in Malta) Directorship, Company Secretarial and administration services which include: 

Accounting Services in Malta

At CSB Group, the provision of accounting and payroll services in Malta, together with timely and accurate financial management reports can provide a substantial competitive advantage to our clients as reliable accounts facilitate decision making.