The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (FSC) is pleased to announce that the Third Round Mutual Evaluation of the British Virgin Islands by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has been completed with the finalisation of the BVI’s Mutual Evaluation Report. The Report concluded that the BVI is largely compliant with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40+9 Recommendations and that, as a Territory, it has maintained a robust public policy commitment to ensuring that it plays its part in the global fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The CFATF Report highlights the tremendous efforts undertaken by the BVI since the last CFATF mutual evaluation of the Territory in 2002 to ensure compliance with established Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) principles and the Territory’s commitment to the establishment of standards in legal, law enforcement, regulatory and international cooperation matters.

The Report published by the CFATF on 22 December, specifically notes that, “the Virgin Islands has maintained a robust public policy commitment to ensuring that the Territory plays its part in the global fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Successive Virgin Islands governments have promoted policies to ensure that the jurisdiction can play its part to effectively combat cross border financial crimes, maintain a reputation of being a clean jurisdiction and where it is found that the jurisdiction has been used by criminals to fully cooperate with the international community. This government commitment has led to the jurisdiction being in the forefront in the introduction of modern financial services legislation such as a licensing regime for trust and corporate service providers, immobilisation of bearer shares and the introduction of mandatory suspicious activity reporting obligations”.

The British Virgin Islands strives to ensure its continued place in the international community as a leading and reputable international finance centre. The Territory will continue to be a strong cooperative partner in the shaping and implementation of compliance standards and supervision pertaining to money laundering and terrorist financing, while ensuring a modern and conducive atmosphere for the conduct of legitimate business