The British Virgin Islands ("BVI") has a long established reputation for providing cost effective corporate structures for raising finance and for acting as efficient gateways for collective investments.

Philip Graham, partner and head of the investment funds and regulatory team, Harneys (BVI), explains why the British Virgin Islands is a domicile of choice for many fund managers.

Of particular benefit to a new manager is that incubator or approved funds are not required to prepare an offering memorandum.

Proper fund governance has long been championed by Conyers Dill & Pearman, for the last decade we have encouraged our hedge fund clients to hold at least annual directors meetings.

Two new fund products have been added in the British Virgin Islands under the Securities and Investment Business (Incubator and Approved Funds) Regulations, 2015 (the "Regulations"); the incubator fund and the approved fund.

In an age of increasing transparency, it is vital that you use the incubation period to start preparing for a time when you will need to meet institutional-style demands in terms of your operations.

It is nearly three years since the BVI launched its Approved Manager Regime.

Cayman and BVI funds are not restricted to using Cayman and BVI service providers.

Philip Graham comments on Thalius Hecksher's recent guest blog and explains why he thinks the British Virgin Islands is like a Mustang GT.

This has been attractive amid the general global trend for increased compliance costs and more onerous regulation.

For many aspiring start-up investment managers, finding the most appropriate jurisdiction to domicile their first fund

The BVI has passed legislation to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-Operating and Development (OECD) Common Reporting Standard for the exchange of tax information (CRS).

When our global funds partners decided to meet in the Entertainment Capital of the World, there was a great deal of scepticism from the rest of the firm as to how constructive our collective output from the meetings might be.

The incubator fund will appeal to managers who want to move quickly and establish a track record whilst keeping set-up costs low and without having to comply with onerous regulatory obligations.

The British Virgin Islands has a regulatory regime which makes it significantly easier for mid-market private equity and venture capital firms to establish investment managers and advisors in the BVI.

It goes without saying that 2008 was a year of turmoil for the Hedge Fund industry as liquidity dried up and share prices fell. The chart below tells the story, which starts with the US housing crisis in 2005.

So, the pound's tanked, world stock markets are in turmoil, Scotland and Northern Ireland are considering whether to leave the United Kingdom so they can stay within the EU and the Prime Minister has announced his resignation.

The British Virgin Islands introduced a ‘regulation light’ regime for investment managers on 10 December 2012 when the Investment Business (Approved Manager) Regulations 2012 (Old Regulations) came into force

To incubate is to keep something in a suitable environment for a term where it can develop to its full potential.

In a series of decisions before the BVI Commercial Court and Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, the liquidators of Fairfield have suffered significant reversals in their claims against investors.