Offshore Bank Accounts
If I use a nominee director, how can I control and operate the bank account?
The BVI law states that the Company Director is fully responsible for all the company affairs and company finance. The Director can be held liable for mismanagement of the company funds as well as for international crimes which are subject to harsh penalties including imprisonment. For this reason, when we are to provide the Director to an offshore company, we will need to be aware of the arrangements and transactions of the company in order to act as a competent and prudent Director as well as preserve our own liability.
The Director will have joint signatory or sole signatory rights with all the bank accounts of the offshore company. The relationship between the beneficial owner and the professional director is regulated by the standard Terms & Conditions of business and, if necessary, by a more specific client-manager agreement. Such agreement could determine, in particular the method of passing any instructions and information from the client to the manager and the fact that the account signatory shall never act on his own accord without express consent by the beneficial owner. As all the instructions to the Director come exclusively from you and the Director will stay passive in the absence of such instructions, you are actually the exclusive person controlling the account.
Actual access to the company accounts can also be granted and you can have joint account signatory rights along with the Director. Some more limited tasks can be assigned to you by a Limited Power of Attorney. Nevertheless, the Power of Attorney and access to the accounts should be used with care as they create risk of tax liability in your own country of residence. You can read more about this risk in our Company Management section.
