1. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen The German Commercial Register A case study – How IT can help Budapest, June 14th, 2010

2. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Justizministerium NRW 02.07.2007 2

3. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 16 States (Länder) 130 Commercial Register 16 Points Of Presence Business Register Portal www.handelsregister.de Commercial Register in Germany

4. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010 4 The Legal Background Public register run by state courts in the 16 states. Entry is compulsory for nearly all German companies. Provides reliable information on –status of companies, –their legal representatives /officers, –capitalisation and more. Serves as a repository for important corporate documents. Entries solely based on notarized applications. Entries provide full proof of their content. About 800.000 applications a year.

5. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 5 The Legal Background Commercial registers are kept and accessible electronically. Applications and other documents are exclusively accepted in electronic form. Applications are submitted as electronic notarial documents. Notary has to provide additional structured data to enable quick entry and increased productivity in register departments. Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

6. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 6 The Practical Consequences Entry into the Commercial Register is no longer a bureaucratic obstacle, but an efficient service rendered by notaries and courts. The German system of commercial law, based on transparancy and trust in public registers, has been maintained complying with the demands of modern procedures and EU regulation. The electronic publication of information on commercial enterprices reduces costs and increases accessibility. Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

7. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 7 www. Handelsregister.de Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

8. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 8 www. Handelsregister.de Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

9. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen www.handelsregister.de 9Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

10. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Justizministerium NRW 02.07.2007 10 www. Handelsregister.de

11. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Technical Overview Individual States can deploy their own systems NRW represents the Federal Government At a federal level the consolidation of data is harmonised Federal notary/digital signature systems available to all States 2 distinct application choices for states –RegisSTAR (12) –Aureg (4), Justizministerium NRW 02.07.2007 11

12. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Technical Overview Commercial Courts exist within a State and with an associated State MoJ All actors within the system external and internal to the courts are identified by digital signatures Courts feed data to a state and a Federal level All submissions to the court are electronically signed (X-Notar) and provided by notaries The digitally signed payloads to the courts are both structured and binary 12Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

13. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Technical Overview Courts process submissions based on State legislation/local business rules Applications are configured to accommodate these rules (still only 2 apps for 16 states) Submissions are routed to individual judges within the courts Long form and short form extracts compiled from the Register represent the entire list of events associated with the entity during its life cycle 13Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

14. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Future – German Federal Considerable achievements to achieve a single consolidated view of Business in Germany Federal Government plans to research the means of creating a single application for all States – Konvergenz Project Project seeks to create a single code base at local level that meets the needs of ALL States Two years research followed by development of the required applications 14Tim Goebbels, VPS RegisSTAR NRW 14.06.2010

15. Die Justiz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen Thank you for your attention! Budapest, June 14th 2010 Tim Goebbels