Secure Effective Property Search System

On June 12, 2017, the Government of the British Virgin Islands issued a new regulation that aims to establish a secure search system for the storage and retrieval of beneficial ownership information [1] of companies domiciled in that jurisdiction. This in order to apply the terms of the Exchange Notes adopted between the Governments of the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom on April 8, 2016, where through the implementation of the aforementioned system, information will be provided to the United Kingdom on the beneficial ownership of the different BVI companies. The information to be provided will be, among others, the name, address, date of birth and nationality of each beneficial owner.

The Registered Agents of the companies will be in charge of maintaining the database containing the beneficial ownership information, with all the protection and confidentiality provided by the system, and only the persons designated by the Government of the Virgin Islands, in this case the Financial Intelligence Unit belonging to the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, will have access to it.

The Act will apply to all Virgin Islands trading companies, with the exception of those that were struck off the Register of Companies prior to January 1, 2016, and have not been subsequently reactivated and, will come into force on June 30, 2017. By that date, BVI Registered Agents must have collected and uploaded beneficial ownership information to their respective databases.

Failure or non-compliance with the obligations contained in the Act, for Registered Agents, will result in the imposition of penalties and fines of up to $40,000.

In order to avoid incurring in the described sanction, some offices have expressed their intention to resign as Registered Agents of the companies that do not submit the information in a timely manner.

This office is ready to provide advice and support in this matter.