During a heated debate on the 2026 Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill in Barbados’ Upper House this Wednesday, Senator Andrew Mallalieu delivered a stark warning against the automatic adoption of foreign regulatory frameworks, arguing that many international standards are ill-suited to the country’s unique market context and urging legislators to prioritize national sovereignty when crafting new legislation.
At the heart of Mallalieu’s criticism is the removal of a 20% ownership threshold that previously defined a beneficial owner in Barbados regulatory code. Section 21 of the proposed bill revises this definition to cover any individual that ultimately owns or controls a legal entity, a change that the senator argues would expand regulatory coverage to all stakeholders regardless of the size of their ownership stake.
“So even if you own one percent or 0.1 percent, you are now covered under this, and that is a substantial change in my reading,” Mallalieu noted. He called on the Leader of Government Business to provide a clear justification for eliminating the threshold, emphasizing that many of the new requirements included in the bill originate from international bodies rather than local needs. Instead of adopting rules purely to align with global benchmarks, he argued, Barbados must conduct a thorough assessment of whether these mandates actually fit the country’s domestic market.
Mallalieu doubled down on his call for a tailored, risk-based approach to regulation, pointing to previous missteps in Barbados’ anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules for real estate agents as a cautionary example. He explained that the role of real estate agents in Barbados differs significantly from their counterparts in jurisdictions like the United Kingdom and the United States, where agents commonly function as escrow agents and directly handle client funds.
“In Barbados, the regulations for real estate agents are completely different to other parts of the world where they do not act as intermediaries in the sense of escrow agents. They don’t ever touch the money,” he said. The senator went on to question the mandate that requires even small, locally owned real estate agencies to collect passport information from clients, raising serious concerns about the ability of these small operations to secure sensitive personal data.
He pointed out that while large, established corporations typically have the infrastructure and resources to implement robust data protection systems, it is unreasonable to expect the same level of security from every small mom-and-pop operation across the country. Ultimately, Mallalieu reaffirmed his core message: Barbados must preserve its regulatory sovereignty and craft policies that are aligned with local economic and market conditions, rather than adopting one-size-fits-all international standards that do more harm than good.