Isle of Man Offshore Company

The Isle of Man’s Financial Supervision Commission has announced Tynwald’s approval of the Investment Business Order 2004.

The 2004 Order replaces the Investment Business Order 1991, which defined the term ‘investment’, the activities that constitute ‘investment business’ and the activities that are excluded from the scope of the Investment Business Act 1991.

The government, in partnership with the finance industry, reviewed the 1991 Order to ensure that the definition of investment remained relevant to the current and future business and investment situation on the island.

The following changes appear in the 2004 Order:

• The position of UK and other overseas persons has been refined to allow only UK FSA authorised persons to ‘legitimately’ solicit investment business on the Island;
• The distinction between when non investment-business professionals act in their professional capacity and when they hold themselves out as providing investment business has also been clarified;
• The circumstances in which custody services constitute investment business have been clarified;
• The exclusion relating to introductions has been refined to apply only to introductions made to ‘independent’, permitted persons;
• Relevant CSP activities, which are now regulated under the Corporate Service Providers Act 2000, have been expressly excluded; and
• The definition of futures has been updated and brought in line with the UK approach to achieve greater consistency.

The 2004 Order will come into operation on 1st December 2004.