Financial Services (Recognised Custodians) Order (Revised 2020)

Summary

This Order, made under section 50B(1) of the BVI Business Companies Act, designates a specific list of institutions as recognised custodians for bearer shares issued by BVI companies. Bearer shares must be held with one of these named custodians for the arrangement to be valid, and the Financial Services Commission retains the power to add or remove custodians from the list.

• The Canadian Depository for Securities
• The Central Depository (Pte) Ltd (Singapore)
• The Central Moneymarkets Unit (Hong Kong)
• Clearstream Banking Luxembourg
• The Depository Trust Company (USA)
• Euroclear
• Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Ltd
• Indeval (Mexico)
• The National Securities Clearing Corporation (USA)
• SIS SegaInterSettle AG (Switzerland)

The Commission may amend this Schedule at any time to add or remove recognised custodians, so companies and their registered agents should check the current list before relying on any particular custodian for bearer shares.

Key obligations

• A BVI company that issues bearer shares must deposit and hold them with one of the custodians named in the Schedule for that custodian arrangement to be recognised under section 50B(1)
• Registered agents and companies should verify a custodian remains on the Commission's current list, since the Commission may amend the Schedule to add or remove recognised custodians at any time

Applies to

companies issuing bearer shares, recognised custodians of bearer shares, registered agents