The Government of the British Virgin Islands recently enacted
the BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act 2015 (the
Amending Act). It is the thirteenth and most
recent amendment to the successful BVI Business Companies Act 2004
(the Principal Act).
Most of the proposed changes set out in the Amending Act came from
a private sector committee that Harneys is fully involved with; it
would be fair to say that the committee initially focussed upon
fine tuning modifications rather than wholesale changes. The
Amending Act (save for sections 27 and 28) comes into force on 15
January 2016; sections 27 and 28 will come into force on 1 April
2016.
A number of the changes will dovetail with the recently announced
new “premium service” function at the Companies
Registry to facilitate “time sensitive, complex and special
transactions” such as continuations to facilitate more
difficult commercial transactions.
Generally speaking, most of the refinements should be warmly
welcomed by the financial services community. The only provisions
which may provoke controversy are those relating to the obligations
with respect to registers of directors (which did not form part of
the private sector’s recommendations, but were part of the
BVI Government’s international commitments to assist foreign
law enforcement authorities, and replicate similar changes in
Cayman and other British Overseas Territories).
To read a further summary of the specific changes as they relate to
topics including arbitration, bearer shares, registered agents,
execution of documents and the register of directors, please
download our legal guide.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
