The Financing and Money Services Act (the
"Act") was passed by the British Virgin Islands
("BVI") House of Assembly in May 2009 and is expected to
come into force in the near future.
The Act is one of several recent statutory measures in the
jurisdiction designed to ensure that the BVI legislative and
regulatory regime is in line with, or exceeds, international best
practice when it comes to combating money laundering and terrorist
financing. Once in force it will introduce a regime for the
licensing, regulation and supervision of financing and money
services businesses carried out in or from within the BVI, together
with criminal offences for breach or non-compliance.
Under the Act, a person shall not carry on, or hold himself out
as carrying on, (i) financing business or (ii) money services
business, in or from within the BVI, unless the person is a company
(whether registered in the BVI or abroad) that has been duly
licensed under the Act (although note that
