Press Release 7 of 2025 - Commission Publishes AML-CFT-CPF Policy and Strategy

Commission Publishes AML/CFT Policy and Strategy

Tortola, British Virgin Islands – As the regulatory authority within the British Virgin Islands, the Financial Services Commission (the Commission) recognises its crucial role in the global fight against money laundering (ML), terrorist financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF). As such, the Commission is committed to safeguarding the integrity of the financial services industry, and by extension the Territory, against ML, TF and PF threats by enforcing relevant AML/CFT/CPF laws and regulations and ensuring that regulated persons/entities adhere to their regulatory and compliance obligations. 

In 2020, the Commission published its first AML/CFT Policy (the 2020 Policy), which largely met its overall objectives of maintaining and enhancing its risk-based approach to supervision and monitoring of ongoing activities of its regulated persons.  In conjunction with the 2020 Policy, the Commission also published its first AML/CFT Strategy, which was designed to address the broad objectives identified in the Policy through the implementation of actions that would achieve those objectives. 

To further cultivate its proactive approach to mitigating ML, TF and PF risk, the Commission announces the publication of its 2025 AML/CFT/CPF Policy (2025 Policy) and 2025-2027 AML/CFT/CFP Strategy, which build on the 2020 Policy and Strategy and support the Virgin Islands National AML/CFT/CPF Policy and National AML/CFT/CPF Strategy.  

2025 Policy
The 2025 Policy builds on the foundation of the objectives in the 2020 Policy outlined in the four (4) key areas of supervision, enforcement, promotion of cooperation and stakeholder awareness and outreach, but addresses the specific ML, TF and PF risks that impact the work of the Commission as the Territory’s financial services regulator in separately identified AML, CFT and CPF Policies.  

The AML Policy highlights the threat ML poses not only to the integrity of the financial system but also to national security, including by facilitating other criminal activity. The AML Policy identifies the key ML vulnerabilities that impact the Commission’s ability to effectively mitigate ML risk, as well as ML risk factors that elevate the level of ML exposure of the financial institutions operating in the Territory.  It identifies high-level objectives that the Commission will seek to achieve in order to play its part in mitigating the Territory’s ML risks.

In response to the critical threat that TF poses to global security and stability, the CFT Policy incorporates specific provisions and measures to combat TF. The CFT Policy details key vulnerabilities identified that impact the Commission’s ability to mitigate TF risks and outlines the objectives identified to mitigate these risks. 

The CPF Policy defines and clarifies the role of PF in undermining efforts to promote disarmament and perpetuate global instability and conflict. The CPF Policy details key vulnerabilities that impact the Commission’s ability to carry out its functions and also identifies objectives to mitigate PF risk.      

2025 Strategy
The Commission’s AML/CFT/CPF Strategy (the 2025 Strategy) is a three-year roadmap for the period 2025 -2027.  The 2025 Strategy is designed to address the objectives identified in the 2025 Policy, which provides the framework against which the 2025 Strategy is built. 

The 2025 Strategy breaks down each objective into action items to be executed in order to address the four key areas of supervision, enforcement, promotion of cooperation and stakeholder awareness and outreach identified in the 2025 Policy. 

The ultimate goal in implementing the Commission’s 2025 Policy and 2025 Strategy is to enhance the Territory’s overall AML/CFT/CPF framework by improving its supervisory and enforcement mechanisms, thereby reducing non-compliance and ensuring that the Territory meets and maintains international standards.

The 2025 Policy and 2025 Strategy are available on the FSC's website under the AML/CFT tab.