Workshop on BVI Financial Services Held for Teachers

According to the Ministry of Education of the British Virgin Islands, a training workshop was organized for teachers of secondary schools. The five-day exercise, which was held from March 23 until March 27, had the purpose to educate business teachers on the financial services industry in the jurisdiction, and provide them information to share with students. The training was facilitated by Director of the Financial Services Institute.

Managing Director of LGS and Associates, Mrs Lorna Smith praised the teachers for their willingness to learn about financial services. Also, Minister for Education and Culture of the British Virgin Islands urged them to use information from the workshop to ensure that students are ready to start their careers in the financial services sector.

Thirty Seventh Volume of Quarterly Statistical Bulletin Issued by BVI FSC

The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission has published the thirty seventh volume of Statistical Bulletin, providing information about financial services in the BVI for the fourth quarter of the year 2014. In the three months period ended December 2014, 11,436 new Business companies were registered in the jurisdiction, according to the Registry of Corporate Affairs – compared to 13,865 companies incorporated in the third quarter of 2014, and 11,375 companies in the fourth quarter of the previous year. Cumulative number of active BVI BCs as at the December 31, 2014 was 457,971. The statistics shows the slight decrease in the number of new companies incorporated in 2014, as compared to 2013, and the decrease is more significant if compared to the peak years of 2011 and 2012.

In the sector of Investment Business, 11 new licenses were granted to Functionaries, and 28 licenses were issued to Mutual Funds. There were 2,142 Mutual Funds registered/recognised in the British Virgin Islands as at 31 December 2014.

Insolvency Services statistics shows that the total number of Licensed Insolvency Services Practitioners in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 26. In Insurance Services sector, total cumulative number of insurance and functionaries licenses granted at the end of the period was 224.

In the sphere of Legal International Cooperation, in the fourth quarter of 2014 there were 18 international cooperation matters requiring disclosure of non-public information, 2 informal requests and 24 enforcement matters. Further information concerning ongoing supervision matters, referred to the Licensing and Supervisory Committee, the number of concluded onsite inspections and other statistics can be found on the BVI FSC homepage.

BVI House Asia Participates in Asian Wealth Management Forum

BVI represented its offshore services industry at the 5th annual Asia Wealth Management Forum 2015, which was held in Hong Kong, sponsored by BVI House Asia and hosted more than 100 Chief Executive Officers, senior management and other industry practitioners. The themes discussed at the forum included the trends in all segments of the wealth management industry in the region. BVI House Asia were interacting with wealth management practitioners to introduce the presence of the jurisdiction in Asia, and the use of BVI offshore tools and structures in wealth planning schemes.  

The BVI House Asia table included the Director of the BVI House Asia, Elise Donovan, as well as Chief Operating Officer of BVI House Asia Heather Tang, Deputy Director of Banking at the Financial Services Commission of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) Michelle Georges, and Team BVI Asia Member Barry Mitchell.