The commercial registers of Estonia and Finland started exchanging data

Finally, some good news regarding joint declaration to launch data exchange and e-services between Estonia and Finland signed in May 2016 by the Estonian and Finnish Prime Ministers. Namely the commercial registers of Estonia and Finland on Friday started exchanging data over the X-Road, which enables the two registries to make inquiries to each other, reducing paperwork and fraud. Cross-border data exchange enables citizens to provide more efficient public services in a more convenient, faster and cheaper way.

So, in the near future Estonian business operators will no longer have to file paper documents to the commercial register of Finland to prove their existence and right of representation. The Estonian register will also check whether the data of the Finnish company is correct and the company exists.

For the time being, only the persons engaging in the processing of commercial register data, who need the data for the performance of their work duties, have access to the data exchanged. Hence, the information will be used by the keepers of the register in the respective countries: the department of registers of the Tartu County Court in Estonia and the Patent and Registration Office in Finland. The data will not be forwarded or sold to third parties.

Two countries are also planning to move forward with exchanges and the joint use of information about activity licenses, population register data, health information, and similar.

This will definitely make the administration faster and more convenient for the company´s and person who are active both in Estonia and Finland.