Friday, February 22, 2008VIRRGIN

Jennifer QuestellesThe Company Registry Computerization

Now, amidst increasing competition, the effects of globalisation, new developments in wealth management and international standards and regulation, the Virgin Islands makes a quantum leap forward to embrace state of the art technology to meet the challenges of today and beyond. Industry partners in the BVI and around the globe along with their clients are set to experience an even better, more responsive BVI. A BVI that is poised to keep firm the foothold, which was planted some twenty years ago.

Strategy can be simple when you are the undisputed market leader in an ever-evolving industry far from maturity. Innovate! Stay ahead of the curve! Enter, VIRRGIN! The Virtual Integrated Registry and Regulatory General Information Network is the trump card of the five and half year old Financial Services Commission. VIRRGIN is the culmination of over two and a half years of research, business analysis and policy review.

It is the retort to the cries of BVI industry partners: registered agents, legal practitioners and their clients. The industry has long lobbied for longer hours of operation, greater efficiency in processing, more timely access to information and greater automation. With a lifetime Register of over 700,000 companies, approximately 400,000 of which are currently active, efficient storage and retrieval of data is a daily challenge for the Commission. The ability to handle this volume of records coupled with the growing volume of critical transactions make the BVI Registry one of the most active and busy in the world. BVI companies are involved in hundreds of thousands of transactions all over the globe daily. The BVI Financial Services Commission is somewhat unique in that it is the single unified financial services regulator in the Territory. All company incorporations, and the supervision and regulation of all Banking and Fiduciary Services activity, all mutual fund and investment business activity, all insurance and insolvency activity is the responsibility of the Commission. Therefore, effectively using technology is critical to the FSC achieving its many objectives and mandates.

Replacing a twelve-year-old information system that employed twenty-year-old technology serving over one hundred and thirty internal users and greater than five hundred external users was a mammoth task. The FSC’s Board of Commissioners gave their full support to the VIRRGIN project. Project planning included interviews and research on competing jurisdictions around the world, evaluation of other systems currently available, and interviews with top technology developers and project management professionals. Given the economic viability of the international finance sector to the territory, the FSC’s project team and indeed all its staff took a special interest and pride in realising the attainment of this major objective. To efficiently manage the great degree of change, use of resources and other constraints, VIRRGIN’s introduction and implementation was designed to occur in three distinct phases. Phases I and II focus on the Registry of Corporate Affairs, and Phase III addresses the needs of the Regulatory divisions of the Commission.

After the formal engagement of the leading Government and institutional technology developer in Singapore, the race was on to the first look at VIRRGIN. The Commission was excited to work with the developers in Singapore primarily because of their extensive experience in using technology to automate government services and particularly because of their development experience for a company formation environment. On 11 December 2006, the BVI registry took its first giant steps to a “near paperless environment”. Using VIRRGIN, the BVI is poised to report a record year for company incorporations; month for month each period in 2007was stronger than 2006 with growth of approximately 18%. VIRRGIN means that filings for new incorporations are now completed in most cases, on the same day with immediate electronic confirmation to the industry for easy transmission to their clients. The Registry’s users have twenty-four hour access to the Registry of Corporate Affairs, real time processing and acknowledgement for time sensitive filings and greater flexibility. Already the Commission was able to offer agents of these companies the flexibility and convenience of paying annual government fees in respect of those companies on-line and in real time to meet the statutory deadlines irrespective of the Commission’s regular hours of operation.

In phase II, the Commission will introduce even greater automation and reduced processing times for after incorporation services as well as the ability to conduct electronic searches of the Companies Register using the remote access provided through VIRRGIN. This increase in automation means that unlike 6 months ago, routine transactions can be processed automatically, freeing our internal resources for re-deployment to more value-added tasks. Our industry partners can utilise a greater number of their employees to direct processing with the Registry and reduce the amount of paper generated. The introduction of electronic signatures gives us the ability to reduce the processing time for each transaction while maintaining the integrity of our operations.

VIRRGIN’s commissioning was a huge step and a great achievement for the Commission and Territory. It allows the BVI not only to continue to be a part of the international finance community, but cements our ability to play an integral part today and in the future. VIRRGIN helps to reinforce the jurisdiction’s key attributes of efficiency, timeliness, flexibility and responsiveness. A distinct competitive advantage is a must if we are to maintain the Territory’s place as a market leader - as a premier destination in the world of international finance. VIRRGIN is the ace that will ensure that the British Virgin Islands continues to dominate international corporate domiciliation with its promise of greater efficiency reduced processing and state of the art electronic services to cater to international clients in every corner of the world.

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