The registration of Lithuanian companies is carried out by the State Business Register Center. The Register Center was established on July 8, 1997 by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania with state funds.

The main function of the registry center is the administration of the following three main state registers:

Real estate cadastre and register
Register of legal persons
Directory of addresses
The registry center took over responsibility for the registration of local government legal entities in 2004; however, company data has been collected from the register since 1990.

Indeed, the Register Center in the Lithuanian Public Sector is considered an excellent example of the establishment and development of a system of register databases.

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia believes that the most suitable type of company for the administration, maintenance and development of registers is precisely a state-owned company that can make a profit as it offers more opportunities to improve the efficiency of the registration process. In contrast to the institutions financed from the state budget, a state-owned company also has the option of recruiting appropriate IT specialists and ensuring the development of IT.

Register of legal persons
The register contains complete information and historical data on the form and status of legal persons, their areas of activity, their size and information on representatives, members, governing bodies and obtained licenses, etc. of legal persons. Since 2004, most companies have been required to submit annual financial reports to the register. Likewise, limited liability companies have been obliged since 2010 to declare a list of shareholders by submitting this information to the registry center.

The Register of Legal Entities applies in practice the principles of transparency and publicity, because the information on legal entities: enterprises, institutions and non-governmental organisations is public.

Statements from the Register of Legal Entities, annual reports, lists of shareholders or any other documents, such as minutes of Board meetings, are kept in the archives of the Centre of Registers, and they are available to all interested persons. This is a paid service.

Electronic registration
In 2010, the Centre or Registers launched the electronic registration of legal entities online. Taking into account that no documents are submitted in written form when using this service, a safe electronic signature is necessary. So far, online registration of legal entities has been available only to the citizens of Lithuania, but the Centre of Registers is actively working on ensuring equal possibilities for foreign investors to use this service. Therefore, the e-Guide for establishment of enterprises is introduced in Lithuania to provide foreign customers with the required assistance by offering the information on how to carry out procedures of establishment and registration.

Types of entities
The Centre of Registers offers to register various forms of legal entities. For example:

a public limited liability company
a private limited liability company;
a cooperative enterprise
an individual enterprise
a state enterprise
a budget institution
an association
a traditional religious association
a trade union
an agricultural company
a co-operative society
a credit union
a municipal enterprise
a public institution
a charity and benefits foundation
a political party
other religious associations and societies
a branch or representative office of a foreign company
Certification services
The Centre of Registers is one of the three providers of certification services in Lithuania. The information trader of the Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia, Lursoft, in cooperation with the Centre of Registers of Lithuania ensures the access to the Lithuania's business database. The business database of Lithuania is integrated with the system of Lursoft, and the inquiries are processed online, thus ensuring that the database is updated at the moment of checking.