BVI Voluntary Liquidations Now Require a Locally Resident Voluntary Liquidator

Amendments to the BVI Business Companies Act in the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") have increased the focus on the role of the voluntary liquidator in the jurisdiction.  Among the recently enacted changes to this legislation, is the important requirement that at least one of the voluntary liquidators appointed by BVI companies after 1 January 2023, must be resident in the BVI. 

In response to these changes, and to ensure we can continue to provide a seamless offering to our BVI liquidations clients, the Maples Group has recently made certain strategic hires to expand the Voluntary Liquidations teams global footprint into the BVI, through dedicated on-the-ground resources that will work alongside the firm's long-established legal services team in the jurisdiction.  

The BVI residency requirement for a voluntary liquidator applies for appointments made after 1 January 2023 and in cases where joint voluntary liquidators are appointed, only one must be resident in the BVI.  Voluntary liquidators appointed before 1 January 2023 are not affected by the amendment.

Notably, the legislation does also introduce new criteria for the qualifications of voluntary liquidators in the BVI.  Any individuals appointed as liquidators are now required to have at least two years' of liquidation experience and professional competency to liquidate the company, in addition to holding an appropriate professional qualification or an insolvency practitioner's licence issued by the BVI Financial Services Commission.  Additionally, voluntary liquidators will now be required to collect records kept and maintained by the company under the law and send copies to the company's former registered agent in the BVI at the end of the liquidation.

The Maples Group's Voluntary Liquidations team in the BVI has the capability to meet all these obligations for our clients to ensure full compliance with the new regime and provide high-quality liquidations services, along with any other business requirements.  Our global Liquidations group has developed best practices to support statutory processes across our extensive international network, to ensure that the wind down of an entity will be handled objectively and in accordance with all local procedures.

The Global Voluntary Liquidations team is led by Marc Randall, who provides liquidation services to a wide range of companies and limited partnerships, including hedge funds, private equity funds and structured finance vehicles in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, BVI, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.  

The amendments to the BVI Business Companies Act, which bring the BVI insolvency regime into line with international standards and best practice, also include changes to the manner in which companies being struck off the register of companies are dealt with and new procedures for the restoration of dissolved BVI companies.  These developments were covered extensively in our recent advisory on this subject. 

If you have any questions on how these legislative changes may impact your business, or in regard to any aspect of the framework for voluntary liquidations in the BVI in the context of your global operations, please reach out to our Liquidations team.