DNFBPs

Who is caught

These instruments regulate designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) in or from the British Virgin Islands for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing purposes. DNFBPs are supervised by the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA), while financial institutions remain supervised by the Financial Services Commission (FSC); the core conduct rules in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations apply to all persons carrying on 'relevant business'.

DNFBP sectors caught

• Professional services: Legal practitioners, notaries public and accountants doing specified client work, and tax advisers and auditors named in the sanctions provisions.
• Trust and corporate services: Trust or company service providers (TCSPs), a sector repeatedly identified as higher-risk across the guidance and enforcement record.
• Real estate and dealers: Real estate agents, dealers in precious metals or stones, and, in the guidance, high value goods dealers, vehicle dealers and boat dealers.
• Casinos and gaming: Casino operators and gaming/betting businesses, in the AML Regulations above stated cash thresholds.

Under the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, the framework applies to persons carrying on 'relevant business', which also captures banking and trust business, insurance, company management, investment business, funds, money services and remittance businesses. The Sanctions (Overseas Territories) (Amendment of Information Provisions) Order 2018 extended existing sanctions disclosure duties to the listed DNFBP sectors. What brings a DNFBP within FIA scope is carrying on that business in or from the Virgin Islands, which triggers a registration requirement under the Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2024.

Sources: An Effective Approach to Ongoing Monitoring · Guidelines on Institutional Risk Assessments · Beneficial Ownership Obligations Under the AML Regime · Effective Enhanced Customer Due Diligence Measures · The Sanctions (Overseas Territories) (Amendment of Information Provisions) Order 2018 (SI 2018/1076) · Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (Revised 2020) · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2021 (No. 34 of 2021) · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2024

Key duties

DNFBPs face registration, governance, due diligence, record-keeping and reporting obligations. The instruments include several duties carrying fixed deadlines, set out first below.

Deadlines to note

• Document production: Documents or information requested by the FIA under the 2021 Act must be produced within five working days; any FIA extension cannot exceed a further five working days.
• Change of control notice: Under the 2024 Act, a DNFBP must notify the FIA within fourteen days after a change in directorship, senior officer position, or significant/controlling interest.
• MLRO replacement: Under the 2024 Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations, if an MLRO ceases to hold office the relevant person must notify the FIA or FSC within fourteen days and apply to appoint a replacement within twenty-one days.
• Annual risk assessment: The Institutional Risk Assessment must be reviewed and updated at least annually and whenever risk factors change.

Registration and change of control

• Registration: No person may carry on business as a DNFBP without being registered with the FIA (2024 Act).
• Prior approval: A DNFBP must obtain the FIA's prior written approval before changing directors, senior officers, or persons with significant or controlling interests.
• Returns: DNFBPs under FIA supervision may be required by Gazette Order to submit returns on directors, controllers, risk assessments and other business matters, and must ensure they are accurate and complete.

Governance and MLRO

• MLRO appointment: Each relevant person must appoint a Money Laundering Reporting Officer; under the amended regulation 13, prior approval from the FIA (or FSC) is required, and the MLRO must meet qualification, fit-and-proper, knowledge and independence requirements.
• Internal controls: Relevant persons must maintain identification, record-keeping, internal reporting and internal control procedures, conduct due diligence audits, and provide staff training.
• Board oversight: Boards and senior management must oversee monitoring functions, approve introducer relationships, approve the Institutional Risk Assessment and set a Risk Tolerance Statement.

Due diligence, monitoring and reporting

• CDD and ECDD: Relevant persons must identify and verify customers and beneficial owners, and apply enhanced due diligence for higher-risk customers such as PEPs, complex arrangements and high-risk country links.
• Beneficial ownership: Licensees must determine, verify and maintain adequate, accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information and make it available to the FSC, FIA or law enforcement on request.
• Ongoing monitoring: Licensees must monitor customers and transactions throughout the relationship, examine flagged transactions, and file internal suspicious activity reports with the MLRO.
• Introduced business: Where relying on a third-party introducer, licensees must satisfy themselves the introducer has performed the required due diligence, obtain the customer and beneficial ownership information, and test the arrangement (AML Regulations 7, 7A and 7B).
• Record-keeping: Relevant persons must keep records of identity verification, transactions and reports, and maintain a register of money laundering reports and inquiries.
• Sanctions and proliferation reporting: DNFBPs must disclose knowledge or suspicion that a customer is subject to an asset freeze or has committed a sanctions offence; under the Proliferation Financing (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2024 reporting applies to transactions of any value after removal of the prior $10,000 threshold.
• Duty to cooperate: DNFBPs and others subject to the Financial Investigation Agency Act must cooperate with the FIA, produce requested material, and must not provide false or misleading information.

Sources: An Effective Approach to Ongoing Monitoring · Guidelines on Institutional Risk Assessments · Beneficial Ownership Obligations Under the AML Regime · Effective Enhanced Customer Due Diligence Measures · Mitigating Risks with Introduced Business Relationships · The Sanctions (Overseas Territories) (Amendment of Information Provisions) Order 2018 (SI 2018/1076) · Anti-money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (SI No. 43 of 2024) · Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (Revised 2020) · Proliferation Financing (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2024 · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2021 (No. 34 of 2021) · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2024

Exemptions and carve-outs

The instruments provide limited carve-outs rather than broad sector exemptions.

• Legal professional privilege: The FIA's power to require production of documents or information is subject to legal professional privilege (2021 Act).
• Cash thresholds: Under the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, dealers in precious metals or stones and casinos are caught above stated cash thresholds.
• Own due diligence: The introduced-business guidance applies only where a licensee relies on an introducer to collect customer due diligence; it does not apply where the licensee performs its own due diligence.
• Narrowed exemptions: The Proliferation Financing (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2024 deleted the exemption in section 38(1)(b) and removed the previous $10,000 reporting threshold, so no minimum value exemption applies to reporting.

Beyond these, the instruments indexed here do not set out broad DNFBP exemptions.

Sources: Mitigating Risks with Introduced Business Relationships · Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (Revised 2020) · Proliferation Financing (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2024 · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2021 (No. 34 of 2021)

Enforcement and penalties

Enforcement runs through both the FIA (under the Financial Investigation Agency Act as amended) and the FSC (through administrative penalties under the AML/CFT Code of Practice and the Financial Services Commission Act).

FIA offences and powers

• Production and freeze offences: Under the 2021 Act, failure to comply with a document/information production request or a freeze order is an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine of up to twenty thousand dollars or imprisonment of up to two years, or both.
• Failure to cooperate: Under the 2024 Act, failure to cooperate with the FIA is an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding twenty thousand dollars; unregistered operation as a DNFBP is also an offence.
• Enforcement powers: The FIA may deregister DNFBPs, direct licensing bodies to cancel or suspend licences (suspension up to 30 days, extendable by a further 30 days in the public interest), require payment of enforcement costs, and issue public statements naming persons subject to enforcement action.
• Return penalties: Non-compliance with a returns Order attracts administrative penalties prescribed in that Order.

FSC administrative penalties

The AML Regulations make breach an offence subject to penalties under regulation 17. Beneficial ownership failures may attract administrative penalties under Schedule 4 of the AML/CFT Code of Practice, fines under the FSC Act, and/or imprisonment under the Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Act. The published enforcement notices show the FSC imposing administrative penalties on trust and corporate services providers for Code breaches, chiefly around customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, keeping CDD up to date, risk assessment, internal controls and third-party relationship testing.

• Range of penalties: Recorded administrative penalties range from $2,000 (Abacus Trust and Management Services) to $335,000 (Commonwealth Trust Limited), with others including $120,000 (TMF), $125,000 (Aleman, Cordero, Galindo & Lee Trust), $175,000 (ABM Corporate Services) and $205,500 (Portcullis TrustNet).
• Statutory basis: Notices cite Schedule 4 of the AML/CFT Code of Practice, 2008 and section 56(1) of the Financial Services Commission Act, 2001 as bases for the penalties.
• Recurring grounds: The most frequently cited breaches are sections 19, 20 and 21 of the Code (CDD, enhanced CDD, and keeping CDD up to date) and sections 31/31B (introduced business and testing of third-party relationships).

Sources: Beneficial Ownership Obligations Under the AML Regime · Administrative Penalties to the total of $125,000 - ALEMAN, CORDERO, GALINDO & LEE TRUST (BVI) LIMITED (2025-11-21) · Administrative Penalties $120,000 - TMF (B.V.I.) LTD. (2023-09-18) · Administrative Penalty $30,000 - Quijano & Associates (BVI) Limited (2022-09-27) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - MCNAMARA CORPORATE SERVICES LIMITED (2022-01-14) · Administrative Penalties $20,000.00 - EAST ASIA CORPORATE SERVICES (B.V.I.) LIMITED (2017-07-04) · Administrative Penalty $10,000.00 - ARAMO CORPORATE SERVICES INC. (2017-03-17) · Administrative Penalty $31,500.00 - Mossack Fonseca & Co. (B.V.I.) Ltd. (2016-11-04) · Administrative Penalty $15,000.00 - JTC (BVI) Limited (2015-12-15) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - Osiris International Trustees Limited (2015-12-06) · Administrative Penalty $15,000.00 - CCS Trustees Limited (2015-11-30) · Administrative Penalty $25,000.00 - ILS Fiduciary (BVI) Limited (2015-11-30) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - MCNAMARA CORPORATE SERVICES LIMITED (2015-11-30) · Administrative Penalty $25,000.00 - QUIJANO & ASSOCIATES (BVI) LIMITED (2015-11-30) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - Fidelity Corporate Services Ltd. (2015-10-28) · Administrative Penalty $10,000.00 - Sucre & Sucre Trust Limited (2015-10-28) · Administrative Penalty $25,000.00 - Lotus Corporate Services Ltd. (2015-10-20) · Administrative Penalty $15,000.00 - Intertrust Corporate Services (BVI) Limited (2015-08-26) · Administrative Penalty $10,000.00 - COVERDALE TRUST SERVICES LIMITED (2015-08-21) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - PATTON, MORENO AND ASVAT (BVI) LIMITED (2015-04-09) · Administrative Penalty $25,000.00 - Newhaven Corporate Services (B.V.I.) Limited (2015-02-24) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - Arias Fabrega & Fabrega Trust Co. BVI Limited (2015-02-13) · Administrative Penalty $20,000.00 - Arias Fabrega & Fabrega Trust Co. BVI Limited (2015-01-13) · Administrative Penalty $335,000.00 - Commonwealth Trust Limited (2014-06-25) · Administrative Penalty $205,500.00 - Portcullis TrustNet (BVI) Limited (2013-10-14) · Administrative Penalty $2,000.00 - Abacus Trust and Management Services Limited (2013-09-27) · Administrative Penalty $100,000.00 - Commonwealth Trust Limited (2013-09-26) · Administrative Penalty $175,000.00 - ABM Corporate Services Ltd. (2013-05-13) · Administrative Penalty $20,500.00 - Mossack Fonseca & Co. (BVI) Ltd. (2012-12-10) · Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (Revised 2020) · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2021 (No. 34 of 2021) · Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Act, 2024