UK 'has acknowledged legitimate interest access is the way to go'- VI Premier

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI- In what has been deemed as a major win for the Virgin Islands' financial services industry, Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) has said legitimate interest access is the way to go when it comes to beneficial financial services ownership information and that the United Kingdom (UK) has now acknowledged this.

Public Registers of Beneficial Ownership is seen by the Virgin Islands (VI) as a threat to its highly regulated financial services industry, and the territory has maintained that it would comply once it was a global standard. In the meantime, the VI created a system whereby anyone having legitimate reasons to access the registers would be allowed to.

The United Kingdom (UK) took a firm decision that its overseas territories (OT) needed to implement new registers of corporate ownership last month. The deadline, which was in June 2025, was missed by some OTs, including the Virgin Islands (VI).

During a press conference on July 21, 2025, Premier Wheatley sought to clarify this ongoing matter.

The press conference was called to give the territory an update on his meeting with Minister for the Overseas Territories, Hon Stephen J. Doughty and other UK Government officials, July 14 and 15, 2025, during which several matters were discussed stemming from the Commission of Inquiry (CoI).