British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission
Encyclopedia
The BVI Financial Services Commission is an autonomous regulatory authority
responsible for the regulation, supervision and inspection of all financial services in and from within the British Virgin Islands
, including insurance
, banking, trustee business
, company management, mutual funds business as well as the registration of companies, limited partnerships
, intellectual property
and ships
.
The Commission now oversees all regulatory responsibilities previously handled by the government through the Financial Services Department. The Commission was established in 2001 pursuant to the Financial Services Commission Act, 2001 to try to protect the independence of the regulation of financial services. The establishment of the Commission was also part of certain international commitments by the BVI to play its part in the fight against cross border white collar crime while safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of legitimate business transactions.
The Commission has also been tasked with new responsibilities including promoting public understanding of the financial system and its products, policing the perimeter of regulated activity, reducing financial crime and preventing market abuse
.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Commission is Robert Mathavious.
Regulatory Authority
A regulatory agency is a public authority or government agency responsible for exercising autonomous authority over some area of human activity in a regulatory or supervisory capacity...
responsible for the regulation, supervision and inspection of all financial services in and from within the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
, including insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
, banking, trustee business
Trust company
A trust company is a corporation, especially a commercial bank, organized to perform the fiduciary of trusts and agencies. It is normally owned by one of three types of structures: an independent partnership, a bank, or a law firm, each of which specializes in being a trustee of various kinds of...
, company management, mutual funds business as well as the registration of companies, limited partnerships
Partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
, intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
and ships
Flag of convenience
The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the...
.
The Commission now oversees all regulatory responsibilities previously handled by the government through the Financial Services Department. The Commission was established in 2001 pursuant to the Financial Services Commission Act, 2001 to try to protect the independence of the regulation of financial services. The establishment of the Commission was also part of certain international commitments by the BVI to play its part in the fight against cross border white collar crime while safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of legitimate business transactions.
The Commission has also been tasked with new responsibilities including promoting public understanding of the financial system and its products, policing the perimeter of regulated activity, reducing financial crime and preventing market abuse
Market abuse
Market abuse may arise in circumstances where financial investors have been unreasonably disadvantaged, directly or indirectly, by others who:* have used information which is not publicly available...
.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Commission is Robert Mathavious.