British advocacy and anti-corruption group Transparency International UK has stated that the BVI’s new policy for its company registry is restrictive and will make it difficult for people to identify the owners of companies and wealthy individuals who do business with the jurisdiction.
The UK has been pushing for the BVI to implement publicly accessible registers that are easily available to almost anyone. But the BVI government’s new policy outlines that only certain individuals with a legitimate purpose can request ownership information.
The policy also states that company owners will be notified once requestors attempt to gain access and will have the opportunity to object to their information being released. However, Transparency International UK raised major concerns with these alerts, which they described as “tipping-off clauses.”
“The proposed approach would see kleptocrats and oligarchs alerted whenever journalists and NGOs request access to information about their companies – and give them a chance to object to their data being released,” the group said in a statement.
The organisation also said that if the BVI remains unwilling to implement “meaningful access,” the UK government should consider all its options to ensure that it does.
The measures in the BVI’s new policy are similar to those previously proposed by the territory but were condemned by UK legislators, who said the proposal contained loopholes that would make it nearly impossible to determine company ownership.
In the meantime, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has defended the new policy, saying the BVI took several steps to define legitimate access, given that there is no single global standard for implementing these registers.
To the UK you need to take over the British Virgin Islands the government will not listen to you because they think that you won’t take over please do it to inforce your laws and for the people, the BVI is in the worse shape that I have ever seen and I am 80 years old.
I strongly disagree with you and all those who believe that the U.K. taking over this island nation is in the long term interest of this country.
People like you who advocate such a move are not thinking about the long term ramifications of such a move for not only yourself but future generations. You have lived your 80 years but you are not thinking about those left behind.
You cannot see the the forest from the trees. You will advocate a nuclear option just to have your way. You prefer to cut off your nose to spite your face. You have not thought it all out. Rather you just say it without thinking.
For someone who has been blessed with life of 80 years, you should know better in my view if you have learned anything in this life.
All those years you have lived, you should know the history of this country by now. To advocate this country essentially go back to a period in history when it was not in our best interest is callous and irresponsible coming from someone your age.
You should know the colonial history of this country that enslaved many of our ancestors the repercussions of which still reverberates today.
Why would you want for us to erase all the progress that was made to overcome this? You are not thinking seriously about the future of your children and grandchildren when you are dead and gone to have such an opinion in my view.
No matter what the issues are in this country we are facing, we have to find solutions on our own. We have to fix ourselves.
Democracy is messy. There are lots of opinions and dissenting voices, and sometimes things don’t go right, but we have the ability to settle our problems at the ballot box.
What you are essentially advocating is this: Going back to our former slave masters because we cannot take care of ourselves. I reject that thought with every fiber of my being.
We do not need our former slave master to tell us how to live and govern ourselves. We are not our ancestors. We are a new generation of highly educated people who can think and do things for ourselves.
So if you and others want to stake your hat on that hill that’s on you, but know this: there are people like myself who disagree with you and will always advocate for as much autonomy under the current constitutional arrangement between the U.K. and the VI.
I see people like you a threat to democracy and it does not surprise me as some of us never left the slave house/plantation. We have grown comfortable with our former slave masters telling us what to do.
You were not emancipated, and remain in mental slavery. At your age, you might feel comfortable staying there, but many of us have moved on and can’t help you.
August festivities are around the corner. Be reminded why we celebrate during that time.
Dude, all people want is a little bit of transparency, competence, and progress. The BVI should have been independent by now, i.e. progress. That people would consider the UK as an alternative to the status quo is less about knowledge of history and more an indictment of our home grown leadership. They’ve been friggin up for 20 years minimum and are currently headed in the wrong direction. When is enough, enough?
Ha ha.
No.
You brainwashed.
You brain cleaned out.
I understand your frustration. I do not believe the remedy is for the U.K to take over.
If indeed as you stated “They’ve been friggin up for 20 years minimum and are currently headed in the wrong direction.”, the solution for me is to vote every last one out who is not living up to expectations.
Now, let me say this: folks here in these Virgin Islands are in my opinion difficult to govern. No matter whom you elect, there will always be those who will always be dissatisfied for whatever reasons.
The country is polarized by political division and personal biases.
I don’t care who you vote in the next election, the dissatisfaction will always endure.
I don’t know why people run for office under these circumstances knowing the constant bad mounting and complaining. Who needs that?
No one can pay me enough to run for politics in this place because I am too familiar with who people are and what this country is all about. If by chance I get crazy enough to do so, I will just need ONE term to set this country straight.
I say one term because I know for certain I will not be voted in again after I am finished telling some of you about yourselves from the podium in a language you understand despite my preference will be the Queens English.
In a short life, who needs the headache these politicians go thru day in and day out? Nah…you guys get the government you voted for. Elections have consequences. Live with it, or do better next time. If you think the U.K. is your savior, you are sadly mistaken. You are free to go back to the plantation.
I agree with 100% of what you said. I laugh every time I hear people crying and moaning for the. AUK to take over. Clearly those who advocate this long to experience what it’s like to be colonized. Test, I do believe It not the majority of person living among us but it’s those who feel they stand to benefit most. I wouldn’t say who but anyone can read through the lines.
You are right on point when you say no matter who we elect, there will always be those who will be dissatisfied and I believe those are the selfish ones who want a piece of the pie and really could careless about the BVI.
I am a proud born Virgin Islander, 5th generation and will never agree for the UK to take over and all who are true Virgin Islanders should agree with me. We just need to hold ourself to account and do wha5 is right.
Thanks for your thoughtful post.
Progress…….what progress? The nation is in decline and has been for some time.
Go and learn the history of this island nation before you speak. Educate yourself. Make google your friend.
Try sit your old a** down.
Most of you wishing the UK to take over probably never been to the UK to see how the lifestyle up there is. Let them come and watch your BVI privacy and freedom vanish.
What a stupid comment. Clearly anyone who advocates for the UK to simply take over the BVI are no friends of the BVI. I would hate to image it born BVIslanders advocating for this.
The UK is in worse shape than the BVI!
Shut up bvi is in the worste position bvi need help stick with this slave master mentality get over that we need to strengthen our ties with the uk. BVI is broke no money we can never be better shape than uk and that’s not the point we just need to be the best version of ourselves
More like a group of self appointed socialists envious of the success of others.
UK Watchdog? Do they even know what the hell they are talking about?
Would we all agree for banks to give out our bank account information, balances etc. to anyone that asks? How is it different for a private individual owning a private company to manage their private wealth? If there is anything criminal then there is a pathway to access the information. If you just want the information to write stories on people well that’s just not acceptable. What is so difficult about this?
The same politicians you here defending has done this very same thing to their people. Research how people bank balances are published publicly for all to see if they leave their personal money in the bank untouched for 7 years. What good for the goose…
You sound very smart. The publication of accounts that are deemed to have been dormant is totally different to publishing person’s active bank information. No matter how you turn it, the watch dog is upset because they are not about information or news, they’re about sensationalism and entertainment. They are upset because now they have no access to people’s business to talk nonsense. People are entitled to privacy, this is why the Police need a warrant to search your property, this is why your banking information is protected, it’s yours, it’s private, nobody has a right to know unless it’s law enforcement etc.
If someone of interest has a BVI Business Company and the Tax Authority, Courts, Regulators etc. want the information, they have a pathway to get it. A tabloid seeking information to spew nonsense should not and will not get access. I see nothing at all wrong with that. Moving right along……………………..
SECRETS SECRETS SECRETS VI hiding criminals and bad deals. Always SECRETS
@YES TO UK You wasted a lot of time talking BULL SH!T
I’m unimpressed with your response. It’s of no value as it does not have a singular intelligent thought. All you have are curse words.
Roll and come again. Surely you can do better than that. String a few sentences together so that I can understand what’s going on in your head.
Ill be happy to engage with you any day or time in an intellectual discussion without the profanity. Up your game. Do better.
I said what I said. Don’t like it, you can curse until Jesus comes down from Heaven. I am free to have my opinions; so are you.
The fact that you read what I wrote is satisfactory enough. All the best on the plantation.
Data protection is that. Who qualifies journalists and NGOs to have access to anyone’s information, whether in the BVI or otherwise. Nonsense.
all the UK want is more tax money to spend wars and guns point blank.
A ship that does not steer with a rudder will surely sink.
The idea of BVI going independent sounds nice in theory, but in reality it would be a disaster.
The country is simply too small to sustain itself. No real exports. No large tax base. No central bank. No defense. No emergency infrastructure. Everything we rely on — passports, natural disaster aid, legal system, global reputation — is tied to the UK.
Independence would cut off the very foundation holding the place up.
You can’t run a country on pride alone. And you can’t develop without scale, structure, and industry.
The BVI doesn’t need independence. It needs maturity, accountability, and a better use of the access it already has.
Independence without preparation is just collapse wearing national colors.
I totally agree with your statement: “Independence without preparation is just collapse wearing national colors.”
As someone who believes in a potential independent state one day, you are absolutely right that preparation should be put in place. However, ruling out independence ever is not a view I share.
Right now there are a lot of challenges on the economic/financial front. We have a serious problem with drug and human smuggling as well. We must have solutions in place to handle every aspect of an independent venture before we take that step.
Fearmongers can learn to mind their own business. They know the danger of relentless paparazzi called journalist. The prince was forced to sue for privacy and they have no respect for wealthy commoners.
First, to all who are still living in past colonial mentalities and psychological and mental constructs regarding the rights of the human beings of this territory should read and now about both UK’s history, its inhumane potential still and lethal potential to genocide.
Those who are in support of that history versus a future of peace, prosperity and good will towards all man equally are neocolonialist in their thinking and writings, and should have no opinion on the future of the people of this country,
As, their views suggest a stance of entitlement and owner of the world, its lands and resources, with implications that the human inhabitants are less worthy and invisible than terrestrial worms.
Further, they are unconcerned about the welfare and progress of the constitution, country, its forward progression, people, children their future.
Moreover, they, with the UK and its “watch dogs” are psychologically flawed and uncaring, with regards to the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of the African Virgin Islander, off-springs and former wealth providers of the British empire.
This is what propelled said UK to being the ruler of all seas, countries, peoples, and their wealth once upon a time. Which is why we are today under the British flag and its ruler ship. All of which were paid for through war, thievery, slavery, human destruction and genocide. Hence the entitled hypocrisy and sanctified political dogma and sentiments used today to hold on to control.
Further, one quote articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all day, but what good will that d? What changes will it bring? None!!
What is known is that powerful nations do not respect law, human rights or beings. They respect only their interests and hegemony.
The current political genocidal decisions that are in full against the nations of Brown and Black people in the so-called Middle East is a modern day human kind greatest illustration of this.
What is occurring there is equal to what the UK and others were doing in the past centuries. Today, they and others are invisible creators and financiers of the same diabolical enterprises.
Second therefore, for the Virgin Islands not too become a relic of a people that have pulled themselves by their hard work and determination to be self resilient, the time must come when the Virgin Islands then, shall unite under a greater Caribbean hegemony, from Trinidad in the South, to include Jamaica, to Virgin Islands in the North. They should change their sovereign, political and economic future.
That is the sort of collective unity is the only political maneuver that will safe guard this territory from looming take over and resettlement of the former colonialist, now neo-colonialist owners.
That collective political and economic organization would yield the greatest independence for these Virgin Islands and their future.
Last, of course the neo-con and the mentally enslaved will view things differently an not of their interest, as they are antithetical to truths. Yet, minus the oligarchs and others who live off of the weak and vulnerable will help maintain the status quo.
is the simplest definition of a BVI company. Any HUMAN who wants to deal with an artificial person should be able to ‘discover’ the names of the living humans who manage the artificial person! This is the sole purpose of an unrestricted search for a company’s beneficial owners at the BVI Companies Registry.
It is not the right. of the BVI to profit from hiding criminality.
it is not a radical, anti-colonial thing for the BVI to offer services that help the rich, criminals and thieves to hide money that they have stolen or extorted.
Usually, if you follow the chain of the money all the way back, the people who suffer from those who misuse the financial services we offer, are the poorest people in society.
Corrupt government officials in Russia, Asian or African countries, steal a nation’s wealth and hide it behind an anonymous BVI company.
If a journalist is following the trail to try and find out where the money has gone (Notice Bank of Asia scandal happening here right now – citizens care where their money goes) they should be able to see behind the curtain and find out who the true owner of a company is.
UK doesn’t need to take over ,but people still need to progress. If everyone young is trying to leave the islands then how can you really improve the island. If all fishing and natural food sources are all imported then how can the island grow. If the main source of income to the island is from a outside source. Create stuff on the island and constantly improve the islands roads could do the islands wonders.
UK THE UK.
Still on the dam plantation