Remote VASP serving residents in Solomon Islands
Foreign-incorporated entity that offers exchange, custody, or transfer services to residents of a jurisdiction without establishing a local entity or office.
Remote VASP is conditionally permitted in Solomon Islands without local incorporation, subject to AML obligations and low licensing burden.
Verdict Details
- Permitted
- conditional
- Local entity required
- No
- Licensing burden
- Low
- Last updated
- 2026-07-13
AML Obligations
- Customer Due Diligence under the AML/CFT Act 2021: identify and verify natural persons (full name, DOB, address, nationality, ID number) and legal persons (name, legal form, proof of existence, senior management), including beneficial ownership at ≥25% threshold.
- Purpose and intended nature of business relationship must be understood and documented.
- Ongoing monitoring of transactions for consistency with customer risk profile, including unusual or suspicious patterns.
- Enhanced Due Diligence required for PEPs, cross-border correspondent relationships, high-risk jurisdictions, complex/unusually large transactions, and anonymity-enhancing virtual assets.
- Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) must be submitted to the Solomon Islands Financial Intelligence Unit (SIFIU) promptly — typically within 24-48 hours of forming suspicion.
- No-tipping-off prohibition: customers/third parties must not be informed that an STR has been submitted.
- Record-keeping: copies of CDD documents, all transaction records (amounts, asset types, dates, parties including Travel Rule information where applicable), and business correspondence.
- Simplified Due Diligence is rarely available for VASPs given inherent risk profile.
Key Restrictions
- There is no specific regulatory framework for VASPs or virtual assets — no dedicated licensing path exists for a remote VASP.
- Cryptocurrencies are not recognized as legal tender by the CBSI and the public has been warned against their use (CBSI Public Notice, 26 July 2021).
- The FATF Travel Rule (Recommendation 16) has not been adopted; there are no specific Travel Rule obligations.
- No regulated crypto exchanges operate under Solomon Islands jurisdiction — trading typically occurs on offshore platforms outside direct regulatory purview.
- If services involve tokens deemed securities (under the Howey-style test present in licensing facts), prospectus/offer document registration with the Registrar of Companies may be required under the Companies Act 2009.
Key Risks
- No dedicated VASP framework means regulatory uncertainty — enforcement would need to rely on general AML/CFT law or securities law, both of which are untested for crypto.
- CBSI has taken a primarily preventive/warning-based approach; however, any entity facilitating ML/TF through virtual assets could face action under the AML/CFT Act 2002/2021 or the Companies Act 2009.
- APG mutual evaluation (2019) found that Solomon Islands has not assessed ML/TF risks associated with VAs/VASPs — this gap creates FATF pressure that could lead to future regulatory change and retroactive exposure.
- Public and government stance is broadly hostile to crypto (warnings, non-recognition as legal tender), creating reputational/PR risk for any operator.
- Low market activity means limited regulatory attention, but also limited infrastructure (no local banking partners, no licensed exchanges, no regulated custody providers).
Evidence
This verdict synthesizes the following facts. Each fact links to its primary source(s).
There are no regulated cryptocurrency exchanges operating under Solomon Islands' jurisdiction. Trading would typically occur on offshore platforms, which are outside the direct regulatory purview of the Solomon Islands authorities.
The CBSI has warned the public against the risks of trading cryptocurrencies due to their volatility, speculative nature, and lack of regulation.
Lack of Specific Legislation: Without a dedicated framework, enforcement actions are harder to initiate.
Companies Act 2009: For breaches related to illegal offerings of unregistered securities or failures in disclosure.
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act 2021 (the AML/CFT Act): This comprehensive legislation aligns the Solomon Islands with international FATF standards, covering customer due diligence, reporting obligations, and broader AML/CFT requirements for financial institutions, which increasingly include VASPs.
Solomon Islands Financial Intelligence Unit (SIFIU)
Identification and Verification of Identity:
Beneficial Ownership: Identify and verify the identity of the natural person(s) who ultimately own or control the customer (typically 25% or more ownership/control threshold for legal entities).
Purpose and Intended Nature of the Business Relationship: Understand the reason for the customer establishing the relationship and the expected nature of their virtual asset activities.
Ongoing Monitoring: Continuously monitor the business relationship and transactions to ensure they are consistent with the VASP's knowledge of the customer, their business, and risk profile. This includes monitoring for unusual or suspicious activities.
Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD): Apply EDD measures in higher-risk situations, including:
Reporting Obligation: Reports must be submitted to the SIFIU promptly. SIFIU guidance usually specifies a timeframe (e.g., within 24-48 hours of forming suspicion).
No Tipping-Off: VASPs and their employees are strictly prohibited from informing the customer or any third party that an STR has been or will be submitted.
Not Adopted: The Solomon Islands does not have a specific regulatory framework for Virtual Assets (VAs) or Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). Consequently, the FATF Travel Rule (Recommendation 16, as applied to VASPs under Recommendation 15) has not been adopted or made effective.
Since there is no regulatory framework for VASPs or the Travel Rule, there are no established threshold amounts for information exchange in the Solomon Islands.
However, operating any unregulated financial service carries inherent risks, and any entity found to be facilitating money laundering or terrorist financing through virtual assets, if such activities were ever investigated and proven, would likely fall under the general provisions of the Solomon Islands Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Act 2002 (as amended). But this would be for the underlying crime, not for VASP-specific regulatory non-compliance.
No specific crypto custody license: There is no dedicated license for virtual asset custodians.
Investment Tokens/Security Tokens: Tokens explicitly designed to represent ownership, a share in profits, voting rights, or other traditional equity/debt-like features in an underlying asset, project, or company. This includes initial coin offerings (ICOs) structured as investment contracts.
Prospectus Requirements: Issuers may need to prepare and register a prospectus or offer document with the Registrar of Companies, providing full disclosure of material information about the token, the project, the risks, and the issuer.
Verdict Attribution
- Source:
- AI-Generated · Unreviewed
- AI synthesized:
- 2026-07-13 (deepseek-chat)
- Last updated:
- 2026-07-13
- Confidence:
- medium
This verdict was produced by an AI model from the underlying facts. Confirm with counsel before relying on it for material decisions.
Conditional — a non-resident entity may serve Solomon Islands residents from abroad but operates in a legal vacuum: no dedicated VASP licensing exists, the CBSI has warned against crypto and does not recognize it as legal tender, and general AML/CFT obligations under the 2021 Act would apply if caught, but enforcement is unclear and unproven.
Questions this verdict aims to answer
- May a non-resident provider serve residents from abroad?
- Does cross-border service trigger licensing, registration, or AML obligations?
- What enforcement risk exists for unlicensed remote operators?