BVI Corporate Law Updated by Amendments and Regulations

The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission announced that the BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act, 2012 and associated BVI Business Companies Regulations 2012 came into force on 15 October 2012, amending the original BVI Business Companies Act, 2004. Both the Act and the Regulations actually are the first significant update to the corporate law regime of the British Virgin Islands since 2006, and introduce a number of measures aimed at streamlining, clarifying and improving the administration of BVI Business Companies.

The BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act, 2012 includes 85 new and amended provisions which clarify certain issues within the Act, and codify some existing practices. Some of the key changes that have been made affect such important issues as company names, share class conversion and bearer shares, Notice of Amendment, the Registrar of Companies, registered agents and registration procedure, voluntary liquidation and dissolution, fees, and security interests of the companies. All the changes are beneficial to the BVI regime and aimed to increase its attractiveness as one of the leading offshore jurisdictions worldwide. 

BVI Business Companies Regulations, 2012 have been developed to complement the implementation of some of the provisions of the Act. The Regulations have a total of 29 new provisions and three new Schedules.

The BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act, 2012 and BVI Business Companies Regulations 2012 can be found on Commission’s website at www.bvifsc.vg.