The changes effected in December 2015 with regards to record keeping obligations for companies and limited partnerships aim to ensure that the BVI remains compliant with OECD requirements. 

The record-keeping rules have been amended to include a more exact definition of the financial records that must be kept by such companies or partnerships.  All registered companies, as well as new companies, are affected by this change.  
 
Every BVI Company always has had, and continues to have the obligation to maintain records that:

• are sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions
• enable the financial position of the company to be determined with reasonable accuracy

Section 98 of the BVI Business Companies Act 2004, as amended by the BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act 2015, provides that:

• Every company shall keep at the office of its registered agent or at such other place or places, within or outside the Virgin Islands, as the directors may determine, records and underlying documentation.
• Every company shall retain the records and underlying documentation for a period of at least five years from the date of completion of the transaction to which the records and underlying documentation relate; or the company terminates the business relationship to which the records and underlying documentation relate.
• Every company shall provide its registered agent without delay any records and underlying documentation in respect of the company that the registered agent requests pursuant to subsection (6).
• Where the records and underlying documentation of a company are not kept at the office of the registered agent, a written record of the physical address of the place at which they are kept and a written record of the name of the person who maintains and controls them, must be given to the registered agent.
• Where the place or places at which the records and underlying documentation of the company, or the name of the person who maintains and controls the company’s records and underlying documentation, change, the company shall, within 14 days of the change, provide its registered agent with the physical address of the new location of the records and underlying documentation; or the name of the new person who maintains and controls the company’s records and underlying documentation.

Under Section 98(2), companies must still meet their existing statutory obligation to keep records that are sufficient to show and explain a company's transactions. Additionally, the records must, at any time, enable the financial position of the company to be determined with reasonable accuracy.

Section 98 (7), as most recently amended, provides that records and underlying documentation must include the following:

• all sums of money received and expended by the company and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure takes place;
• all sales and purchases of goods by the company; and
• the assets and liabilities of the company.

Even though the requirement to keep accounts does not imply that BVI Companies are obliged to produce and maintain financial statements, it does mean they are required to keep accounting records such as invoices, contracts and similar documents in relation to the above.
 
Sanctions for non-compliance with the record-keeping rules
 
A company that contravenes its statutory record-keeping obligation under the BCA commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of US $50,000. This fine has been raised from the prior penalty of US $10,000.

Obligations of BVI Registered Agents

The registered agent shall keep and maintain a record of the place or places outside the Virgin Islands at which the company keeps its records and underlying documentation and such record shall include the name of the company and the address of the person who maintains and controls the company’s records and underlying documentation. Also, whenever required to do so by the Commission or any other competent authority in the Virgin Islands acting pursuant to the exercise of a power under an enactment, the registered agent shall request from the company, records and underlying documentation in respect of the company.