FSC - Financial Services Commission of British Virgin Islands – BV

Who is the BVI FSC?

The British Virgin Islands is one of the best-known offshore islands with a stable political environment and strong legal framework based on British law. With the enactment of the Financial Services Commission Act, 2001, the BVI Financial Services Commission, the national financial regulator, came into being, aiming to protect both forex brokers and forex traders.

The BVI FSC is an autonomous regulatory authority responsible for the regulation, supervision and inspection of all the British Virgin Islands financial services including insurance, banking, trustee business, company management, mutual funds business, the registration of companies, limited partnerships and intellectual property.

Forex brokers operating within the British Virgin Islands are required to hold a valid license from BVI FSC. The process of obtaining a broker’s license here is a bit more complicated than in the other offshore jurisdictions.

How does the BVI FSC regulate a forex broker?

1. Safety of Client Funds：

A licensee shall ensure that client assets are identified, or identifiable, and appropriately segregated and accounted for; and make arrangements for the proper protection of client assets.

2. Requirement on Forex Brokers’ Reports：

Anti-laundering Reports; Audit Reports; Transaction Reports.

How to check a broker is BVI FSC-regulated or not?

Generally speaking, BVI FSC-regulated broker profile will be found at the Regulated Entities page on BVI FSC website. Try to find it and check if it will match the info from the broker website.

The detailed steps are as below:

1. Find the name of the forex broker, which you can get from the broker’s website;

2. Enter the name into the search bar on https://www.bvifsc.vg/regulated-entities;

3. And you’ll get the broker’s profile details on BVI FSC website. At this time you need to check if the broker can provide regulated activities of ‘Arraging Deals in Investment’ or ‘Dealing in Investments as Principal’;

How to solve disputes with a BVI FSC-regulated broker?

When you have disputes with a BVI FSC-regulated broker, you can proceed the following ways:

1st way: The recommended way is to contact the broker directly and discuss with them to find a solution.

2nd way: If the response was not what you were hoping for, you have the following options:

● Contact the BVI FSC

The BVI FSC will only consider complaints submitted in writing. You can send a letter, a fax or an e-mail to BVI FSC.

Contact

E-mail: commissioner@bvifsc.vg

Address: Pasea Estate, P.O. Box 418, Road Town, Tortola, VG 1110, British Virgin Islands

Fax: 284-494-5016

● You can also contact British Virgin Islands International Arbitration Centre (BVI IAC). You can estimate the costs that you are likely to incur for arbitrating at the BVI IAC on https://www.bviiac.org/Dispute-Resolution-Services/Fees.

You can either send the complaint to the email: arbitration@bviiac.org or by post: BVI International Arbitration Centre, Po Box 3438, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands.

3rd way: If the 2 ways above can’t solve the dispute, the last way is to issue a case to the court in British Virgin Islands.