Unravelling
complexity.

At its plenary session on 25 February 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) included the Cayman Islands as a jurisdiction being monitored for the active resolution of identified deficiencies in its regimes for the countering of anti-money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. While no significant issues were identified with the Cayman Islands compliance regimes, the Cayman Islands were given three action items aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of its compliance regimes and therefore included on the list of jurisdictions being monitored.

Welcome to season two of our Practically Speaking podcast. This season London based, Transactions Partner, Rachel Graham and Director of Client Services, Amy Roost will be exploring the ins and outs of the lifecycle of a BVI company.

Given the sheer volume of British Virgin Islands Business Companies (BCs) in existence, there is at any given time in some part of the world a transaction involving a BC. Pursuant to the BVI Business Companies Act (the Act), the business and affairs of that BC shall be managed by or under the direction or supervision of an individual or corporate entity that consented to and was appointed to act as a director. The purpose of this note is to provide an overview of some of the salient points that should be borne in mind by a director of a BC (which is restricted herein to mean a non-regulated company limited by shares) when undertaking the decision making process.

Any Cayman Islands exempted company (the most common Cayman corporate vehicle limited by shares) may be registered as a segregated portfolio company (an SPC) under the Cayman Islands Companies Act (Companies Act). The concept of an SPC is that the company, which remains a single legal entity, may create separate segregated portfolios (each, a Portfolio) with the assets and liabilities of each Portfolio being statutorily ring-fenced from the assets and liabilities of each other Portfolio and the general assets and liabilities of the company. Income and other property of an SPC that is not attributable to any Portfolio constitute the general assets of the company.

The Cayman Islands limited liability company (LLC) is a corporate vehicle closely aligned with the Delaware limited liability company. This Guide sets out the key features of LLCs and how they can be formed under the Limited Liability Companies Act (LLC Act).

All exempted limited partnerships (ELPs) registered in the Cayman Islands are subject to the continuing obligations set out in the Exempted Limited Partnerships Act (ELP Act). This Guide provides a general summary of some of the on-going obligations of Cayman Islands exempted limited partnerships.