The British Virgin Islands Approved Manager Regime

The Investment Business (Approved Managers) Regulations (As Revised) (the Approved Managers Regime) (as supplemented by the Approved Investment Managers Guidelines (As Revised) issued by the British Virgin Islands (BVI) Financial Services Commission (the FSC) came into force in the BVI in 2012 and was designed to be a regulatory ‘light' regime for qualifying investment managers and advisers who are incorporated or formed in the BVI (Approved Managers). The systemic risk posed by start-up and existing midsized managers of both open-ended and closed-ended funds is generally acknowledged to be lower than for those managing larger sums of investor money. Such managers are, however, often subject to the same regulatory regime as larger managers, leading to a disproportionate level of regulatory compliance costs.