Banking Regulation 2025

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Omonike Robinson-Pickering, Iona Wright, Lucy Frew and Sara Hall, Walkers

5. AML/KYC 5.1 AML and CFT Requirements

Whilst there are no governmental or FSC- imposed diversity requirements or binding rules of conduct for bank employees, these may be defined at each bank’s corporate level, with reliance on international standards such as the United Kingdom’s standards (pursuant to the Equality Act 2010) and internal certification for stall members, respectively. This would depend on such bank’s internal policy and application as well as enforcement varies from bank to bank. 4.2 Registration and Oversight of Senior Management Directors and senior officer (which includes sen - ior managers responsible for the compliance, money laundering compliance and internal audit functions) appointments to BVI banks require prior FSC approval. This requires the submission of Form As to the FSC and relevant supporting documents in order for the FSC to conduct a fitness and proprietary assessment. Supporting documents include: • certified copy of academic qualifications; • CV/resume; • job description; • organisational chart; • notarised copy identity documents (passport and recent utility bill); • separate professional, financial and personal references; • certificate of absence of criminal record; and • certificate of absence of dishonesty, bank - ruptcy, and other things. FSC approval of a director or senior officer appointment usually takes around four weeks. 4.3 Remuneration Requirements There are no specific remuneration requirements applicable to banks in the BVI.

BVI banks are subject to the offences and gen - eral reporting requirements under the Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Act, Revised Edition 2020 (as amended), including mandatory reporting of suspicious transactions to the Financial Inves - tigation Agency. In addition, they are subject to the BVI sanctions regime, which is the UK sanc - tions regime as extended to the BVI through pri - mary legislation and Orders in Council. The Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, Revised Edition 2020 (as amended) (“AML Reg - ulations”) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Code of Practice, Revised Edition 2020 (as amended) (“AML Code”) apply to the extent an entity is engaged in “relevant business”. This includes “banking business” within the meaning of the BTCA. As such, BVI banks are subject to the AML Regulations and the AML Code. In summary, the key require - ments are to: • establish and maintain internal systems and controls, which include: (a) having written policies preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and prolif - eration financing in connection with the bank’s business; (b) conducting business risk, transaction and business relationship assessments; (c) having mechanisms to enable the identifi - cation and verification of customers; (d) recognising and reporting suspicious transactions; and (e) keeping records of customer transactions and any suspicious transaction reports; • appointing a designated Money Laundering Reporting Officer;

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