The AS&K Brief - The Companies Amendment Act 1996 - 21st June 1996

A Bill entitled "The Companies Amendment Act 1996" (the "Bill") was tabled in the Bermuda House of Assembly on 21st June, 1996. This is the fifth successive year that the Minister of Finance has introduced a bill to effect amendments to the Companies Act 1981 (the "Act"). The enactment of the Bill, together with the Companies Amendment Acts of 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995, continues the process of modernising Bermuda's company law.

The Bill contains a number of highly significant proposed amendments which are of a broad policy nature. These include:

A. A proposal to permit alternative arrangements for all those exempted companies that do not wish to have a quorum of Bermuda resident directors and to redefine the role and duties of a resident representative and to extend the role of resident representative to apply to private as well as public companies.