2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 9 - Banking
Chapter 9 - Foreign Banks
§ 101. Establishment in the United States Virgin Islands

Filing of charter or articles of incorporation and statement

• (a) Upon compliance with the provisions of this chapter, any banking corporation organized under the laws of any other territory or state or of any foreign country, which operates a bank and does business at the place of its incorporation, may do business and establish offices in the United States Virgin Islands, provided that, before beginning its operations in the United States Virgin Islands, it files in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor a duly authenticated copy of its charter or articles of incorporation, and a statement verified by oath of the president, manager, agent, cashier, or other authorized officer of said bank, and attested by a majority of its Board of Directors, showing—

  • (1) the name of such foreign bank;

  • (2) the location of its existing or proposed main offices or places of business within and without the United States Virgin Islands;

  • (3) the object or objects of its business;

  • (4) the amount of its authorized capital;

  • (5) the amount of its capital stock actually paid in cash;

  • (6) the amount of the assets of the bank, and of what they consist, and the actual cash value thereof;

  • (7) an itemized statement of the liabilities of such foreign bank, whether any of its indebtedness is secured, and if so, how secured;

  • (8) the amount of capital to be devoted to its business in the United States Virgin Islands, which in no case shall be less than $100,000;

  • (9) the name and post-office addresses of the chief executive officers in the home bank and all officers in the United States Virgin Islands, and the time when the term of office of each expires. Thereafter, as each such officer retires from office, such foreign bank shall promptly, and in the same form, notify the Lieutenant Governor of the name and address of his successor in office, to the end that the Lieutenant Governor shall at all times have a current list of names and addresses of all such officers.

Consent to be sued; designation of agent for service of process

• (b) Such foreign bank shall also file at the same time, and annually not later than the fifteenth day of March, in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, a certified true copy of a resolution approved by a majority of its Board of Directors under the official seal of the foreign bank and the signatures of its chief executive officers or attesting officer, and its cashier if there is one, certifying that the foreign bank has consented to be sued in the courts of the United States Virgin Islands upon all causes of action arising against it in the United States Virgin Islands, and that service of process, as well as any other judicial return, may be made on a determined person, a resident of the United States Virgin Islands, whose name and place of residence shall be designated in such certificate; and such return of service, when so made upon such agent, shall be valid service on the foreign bank.

  The written consent of the person so designated to act as such agent shall also be filed in like manner and such designation shall remain in force until the filing in the same office of a written revocation thereof, executed in like manner, in which case some other person shall be designated to act as such agent. A certified copy of a designation so filed, accompanied by a certificate that it has not been revoked, is presumptive evidence of the execution thereof, and shall be conclusive evidence of the authority of the officer executing it.

Alternate agent for service of process

• (c) If any foreign bank fails to designate a person authorized to accept service of process on its behalf, or if such person dies, becomes incompetent, or cannot by exercise of due diligence be found, within the United States Virgin Islands, and, in any case, after a foreign bank has withdrawn its presence from the United States Virgin Islands, by liquidation or otherwise, service of process may be had upon the Lieutenant Governor, and such return of service, when made upon the Lieutenant Governor, shall be valid service on the foreign bank. Documents to be served in such cases shall be in triplicate, and the Lieutenant Governor shall promptly forward one set thereof to the principal executive officer of such bank, as disclosed by his current record, by registered or certified air mail, return receipt requested, and the foreign bank shall have forty days from the date of such mailing in which to answer or otherwise take such action as may be appropriate.

  The Lieutenant Governor shall promptly transmit one set of documents served to the Banking Board, and shall retain the third set, noting on the jacket thereof his actions taken and the date thereof.