BVI FSC Issued Eighteenth Volume of Quarterly Statistical Bulletin

Last week, the eighteenth volume of Statistical Bulletin was issued by the BVI FSC, providing information and statistics on the British Virgin Islands financial sector activities in the first quarter of 2010.

In the three month period ended March 31, 2010, there was an increase in the amount of business companies registered in BVI – 16,596 newly registered entities, compared to 11,931 in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 12,307 in the first quarter of 2009. The number of BVI business company incorporations in this period approached to the statistics reported in 2008, - before the yields of the global economical and financial crisis became so clear. Cumulative number of business companies incorporated in the jurisdiction was 456,226 as at March 31, 2010.

Banking and Fiduciary services statistics showed that total number of currently licensed entities in the first quarter of 2010 was 268. According to financial results of banking sector in the first quarter of 2010, total assets of the banks were $2,469,308,000, and net income was $16,239,000.

In the Investment Business sector, 8 new licences were granted in Q1 2010, their total number as at the end of the period was 578; also, 58 new mutual funds licences were issued.

According to the Legal and International Cooperation statistics for the first quarter of 2010, there were less international cooperation matters compared to the previous periods – 17 formal and 4 informal requests, and 28 enforcement matters. There were 913 matters before the Licensing and Supervisory Committee (LSC), of them 91 for banking and fiduciary services, 786 for investment business, 32 for insurance and 4 insolvency services matters.