TCSP Licensing in Hong Kong

The Companies Registry states that, unless exempted by virtue of section 53B of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615), any person who carries on a trust or company service business in Hong Kong is required to obtain a trust or company service provider licence from the Registrar of Companies.

A licence is a standing status rather than a one-off registration window. The Registry publishes no closing date for it, so the question is whether the business being carried on is a trust or company service business today, not whether a deadline has passed.

The Registry publishes which legal-profession firm shapes the section 53B exemption reaches. The two published shapes are:

• a solicitor or foreign lawyer, as defined by section 2(1) of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap. 159), carrying on a trust or company service business in Hong Kong as a sole proprietor
• a partnership in which all partners are solicitors and/or foreign lawyers as defined under the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, which the Registry states is exempted as well

The Registry records that barristers and notaries do not fall within the Ordinance’s definition of a legal professional, so the section 53B exemption is not drawn to reach them.

That is why this requirement is shown to barristers and notaries as well as to solicitors. The licensing question is live for them rather than settled, and it is one they should put to the Registry directly.

Applications for a trust or company service provider licence are made to the Registrar of Companies through the Registry’s own TCSP licensing portal. The Registry publishes the application requirements, the fit and proper criteria it applies, and the fees on that portal.

This requirement appears in the regulatory requirements section of your professional dashboard. If one of the Registry’s published exemption categories applies to your practice, you can record the requirement as not applicable and cite the category you are relying on.

We record the category you cite. We do not check it against the Companies Registry, and recording it here is not confirmation from the Registry that it covers you. Your declaration is a statement about your circumstances now, so we ask you to confirm it again each year.

The Registry FAQ this page reports answers the licensing question for legal professionals. It does not report the separate customer due diligence, record keeping and reporting duties the Ordinance places on a licensed trust or company service provider, nor the anti-money-laundering duties the Law Society of Hong Kong sets for its own members. Those sit with the Registry and the Law Society respectively.

Expat183 is a technology marketplace that connects users with legal, financial, and tax professionals. We do not provide legal, tax, or regulatory advice.

We report published regulatory requirements as a courtesy to help professionals stay informed. This is not advice, and professionals should always verify their position directly with the Companies Registry or with the Law Society of Hong Kong.

• Companies Registry: TCSP licensing FAQ for legal professionals (opens in a new tab)
• Companies Registry: TCSP licensing portal (opens in a new tab)