Limited Partnership (Restricted Limited Partnership Names) Notice, 2021

Summary

This Notice, issued by the BVI Financial Services Commission under section 13(3) of the Limited Partnership Act, 2017, designates a list of restricted words and phrases that cannot be used in the name of a limited partnership without the Commission's prior written consent. It applies to anyone seeking to register or name a limited partnership in the Virgin Islands.

• Restricted words: The Schedule lists restricted words, phrases and abbreviations (and their derivatives, cognate terms, foreign-language translations, and singular or plural forms) that trigger the consent requirement, including terms such as Bank, Trust, Insurance, Fund, Assurance, Royal, Government and many others.
• Registrar's duty: The Registrar must not register a limited partnership whose name contains a restricted word or phrase unless the Commission has given prior written consent to its use.
• Abbreviations: Where a restricted word listed in the Schedule is used in abbreviated form, a full stop may be placed at the end of the abbreviation or between the abbreviated letters.
• Use of full or abbreviated form: Where the Commission consents to use of a restricted name that can be abbreviated, the limited partnership may use either the full or abbreviated form of that name.

The Notice took effect on gazettal on 12 August 2021 and remains in force, operating as a standing naming-restriction rule for limited partnerships rather than a document requiring periodic filings.

Key obligations

• A limited partnership name must not include a restricted word, phrase or abbreviation listed in the Schedule unless the Commission has given prior written consent to its use.
• The Registrar must refuse to register a limited partnership name containing a restricted word or phrase absent the Commission's prior written consent.

Applies to

limited partnerships