One of the great attractions of the British Virgin Islands
("BVI") as a jurisdiction for
structuring finance transactions is the simple yet thorough
security registration regime applicable to BVI companies. For the
most part, where a lender advances money against security provided
by a BVI company, registering the security and thereby protecting
its priority and giving public notice of the secured party's
rights is a straightforward and effective system. However, the
legal position becomes less clear when the company is acting not
for its own account, but in its capacity as trustee of a trust.
The question of how to deal with trust property is not new. The
statutory system for registration of company charges was first
introduced in the BVI in 1991, and since that time practitioners in
the jurisdiction have had to consider how best to address the
problem of a company creating a charge over assets which it does
not beneficially own. However, the last two to three years
