Firms will be obliged to submit annual reports to the newly created Central Balance Sheet Office, which will be run by Luxembourg’s official statistics agency, said François Biltgen, the justice minister, Jeannot Krecké, the economy minister, and Nico Weydert, deputy director of STATEC, during a press conference.

The agency will allow the government to analyse companies’ financial health, with the objectives of both gaining early warning about specific firms in trouble and gaining insight into economic trends for policy makers.

In return, companies will only have to submit their accounts once for all administrative bodies.

Luxembourg first mooted its CBSO over 30 years ago, Krecké (photo) said. Such central bureaus are already common--either as separate agencies or part of central banks--across Europe.

The new regime takes effect January 1, 2012.