New Delhi: For Dr Natalio D. Wheatley, Premier of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), his first ever visit to India is an effort to deepen a financial relationship that has evolved over roughly 25 years and to position the Caribbean territory for a larger role in India’s next phase of global economic expansion.
“BVI has been a long-term partner in India’s growth story and will continue to deepen engagement with India’s financial services sector over the coming years,” Wheatley told an audience of Indian lawyers and financial-services professionals Tuesday in New Delhi.
The British Virgin Islands, a UK overseas territory, relies heavily on tourism and offshore financial services. It is a well-established financial centre providing banking, accounting, legal, insurance, company registration, trust, investment, and shipping services.
The BVI has attracted hundreds of thousands of registered companies, with its low-tax system and flexible corporate structures making it a popular offshore jurisdiction.
However, limited ownership disclosure and the ease of establishing shell companies create significant money-laundering and financial-crime risks as well. The BVI has approximately 350,000–375,000 active registered companies, many of which operate as offshore or shell companies.
The UK government, meanwhile, is facing criticism for allegedly giving in to pressure from the British Virgin Islands by allowing it to restrict access to its company ownership register. Under the proposed system, only individuals or organisations considered to have a “legitimate interest”, such as those investigating financial crime, would be able to access ownership information, despite UK legislation dating back to 2008 calling for public registers.
The BVI had previously committed to establishing a public beneficial-ownership register, but its current rules allow authorities to deny access when they believe disclosure is not in the territory’s public interest.
Historically, trade between India and the BVI has included machinery, medicines, and raw materials, while the BVI has also served as an important channel for foreign direct investment (FDI) into India.
Wheatley is leading BVI’s first dedicated trade mission and roadshow to engage India’s financial-services institutions and markets. The delegation includes senior government officials and private-sector representatives and is scheduled to travel to Mumbai and GIFT City after its meetings in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Wheatley Monday and welcomed greater engagement with the BVI in areas of mutual interest.
The visit comes as Indian companies expand overseas, foreign investment into India grows and Indian investors and financial institutions increasingly look to international markets to invest and raise capital.
Wheatley said the BVI’s common-law legal system, flexible corporate framework and international network of professional-services firms could help support that expansion.
“Greater liberalisation and integration into the global economy has driven the exponential growth of India’s capital flows, and the British Virgin Islands seeks to play an even more critical role in that growth,” he said.
The BVI is also seeking to expand its role beyond traditional corporate and financial services. Wheatley said the territory wants to work with Indian institutions, including GIFT City, to develop what he called a “dedicated BVI-India Investment Corridor and Gateway.”
He also said the BVI hopes, eventually, to become one of the first international jurisdictions to list directly on Indian stock exchanges.
“We aim to bring cutting-edge products to the needs of the Indian market,” Wheatley said.
The visit also comes against the backdrop of India’s ambition to become a developed economy by 2047, an objective that BVI officials say could provide a long-term framework for closer economic ties.
“We look forward to coming back here, to being a part of that 2047 period when India is committed to being a developed country,” said Lorna Smith, British Virgin Islands minister for financial services, economic development and digital transformation. For Wheatley, the mission is less about establishing a new relationship than giving a longstanding one greater scope.
“I reaffirm our purpose here today to refresh a decades-old friendship, to reaffirm existing BVI-India ties, and to together build new value in a rapidly expanding Indian economy with an ambition of being at developed status by 2047, an ambition that the BVI certainly can support you in,” he added.
The mission comes after more than a year of public discussion about the BVI government’s plans to strengthen its commercial ties with India.
The BVI had already begun laying the groundwork for closer engagement through a year-long outreach programme in India in 2025, coordinated by the BVI Government Representative Office in Hong Kong. The programme included meetings with regulators, government officials and business leaders in several of India’s major financial centres. In May 2025, Wheatley said the government was considering a dedicated mission to India as part of a broader strategy to diversify the markets served by the Virgin Islands.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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