BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Chris Duncan and Katrina Lindsay, Carey Olsen
of electronically created filed and retained elec - tronic records and ‒ subject to certain criteria being met ‒ signatures applied to such records. 2.12 Review of Industry Participants by Parties Other than Regulators There are several stakeholders with an interest in the activities of fintech industry participants in the BVI ‒ some of whom are required by law to review those activities and others who will do so as a matter of industry best practice. Auditors and Accounting Firms The VASP Act requires a VASP (unless exempt) to have an auditor appointed at all times for the purpose of auditing its financial statements. The auditor of a VASP will be required to report immediately to the FSC any information relating to the affairs of the VASP that they have obtained in the course of acting as the VASP’s auditor that, in their opinion, suggests that: • the VASP is insolvent (or approaching insol - vency); • operating in a manner that may be detrimen - tal to the interests of its clients; • no longer compliant with the requirements of the VASP Act (or other financial services legislation); • operating with significant weaknesses in its internal controls, which render it vulnerable to significant risks or exposures that have the potential to jeopardise its financial viability; or • an offence has been or is being committed by the VASP in connection with its business. Service Providers and Legal Advisers Service providers that work with fintech pro - viders, including independent directors, legal advisers, registered agents and authorised rep - resentatives, may review their activities to ensure
alignment with contractual obligations, regula - tory requirements, and industry standards. Industry Associations Industry associations and working groups (including BVI Finance, the BVI’s financial ser - vices industry group, and the newly formed Virgin Islands Virtual Assets Association) play a key role in setting industry standards, promot - ing best practices, and ensuring a collaborative approach between members, the BVI regulators and the BVI government to ensure the BVI main - tains its competitive global advantage. 2.13 Conjunction of Unregulated and Regulated Products and Services Although it is possible for one legal entity to pro - vide both regulated and unregulated products and services, in practice, the regulated prod - ucts and services are often carried out through a separate entity from the entity established to provide the unregulated service and product offering. This is, in part, due to the additional layer of review and approval that the unregu - lated part of the business would be subjected to in order to comply with the requirements of the licence/registration issued in respect of the regulated product and service offering. 2.14 Impact of AML and Sanctions Rules See 2.11 Implications of Additional, Non-Finan - cial Services Regulations (Sanctions) for dis - cussion of the sanctions rules impacting regu - lated and unregulated fintech companies. The AML Regs are promulgated under the Pro - ceeds of Criminal Conduct Act 1997 (as amend - ed) and apply to relevant persons. The definition of “relevant person” was amended pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Regu - lations 2022 in order to include, with effect from 1 December 2022, the business of carrying on
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