News & Topics

Anti-money laundering

HSBC and Standard Chartered, both with a strong presence in Hong Kong, have been making it more difficult for British Virgin Island companies to open bank accounts in the Chinese territory ,  as a result of strengthening compliance with money laundering rules. Experts say BVI’s reputation also suffered after a mass leak of investor names, while France put BVI on a black list for providing information to regulators too slowly. Samoa and the Seychelles have benefitted from BVI’s fall in Chinese incorporations with rises in registrations of 38% and 24% respectively.