A Licensed Contact Person (LCP) is a licensed or registered service provider, typically a Cayman Islands-based licensed fund administrator or a licensed corporate services provider. A CIMA-registered mutual fund or private fund can appoint an LCP instead of maintaining its own full beneficial ownership register. The role exists because most investment funds do not hold beneficial ownership information in the same way an operating company does, so the regime allows a suitably licensed intermediary to hold and supply that information to the Cayman Islands Competent Authority on request instead.
What the role involves
A Licensed Contact Person must be able to access accurate beneficial ownership information relating to the fund and provide it to the Competent Authority within 24 hours of a request – or within any other timeframe the Competent Authority reasonably stipulates – without necessarily holding a standalone beneficial ownership register itself.
Who can act as a Licensed Contact Person
Eligible appointees include a corporate services provider licensed or registered by CIMA to handle beneficial ownership information, or a licensed fund administrator based in the Cayman Islands. A fund’s registered office provider will often already be positioned to take on this role.
Why funds use this route rather than a full register
Fund structures typically have investors, rather than a small, static ownership group, and beneficial ownership within a fund can shift frequently as units or shares are subscribed and redeemed. Requiring the same continuous register-and-notify process used for an operating company would be disproportionate, so the Act allows CIMA-registered mutual funds and private funds to rely on a Licensed Contact Person able to produce the relevant information on demand instead.
What doesn’t change
Appointing a Licensed Contact Person streamlines how information is reported, but it does not remove the fund’s underlying obligation to ensure accurate beneficial ownership information exists and can be produced. The fund remains responsible for the arrangement being properly in place.
Most CIMA-registered funds already have a natural candidate for this role in their existing fund administrator or registered office provider, which keeps the compliance burden proportionate to the fund’s structure.
Related questions: Which entities are in scope under the Cayman Islands Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act? | What are the beneficial ownership reporting requirements under the Cayman Islands Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act?
wb.group acts as Licensed Contact Person and registered office provider for Cayman Islands funds.
FAQs
A Licensed Contact Person (LCP) is a licensed or registered service provider, typically a Cayman Islands-based licensed fund administrator or a licensed corporate services provider. A CIMA-registered mutual fund or private fund can appoint an LCP instead of maintaining its own full beneficial ownership register. The role exists because most investment funds do not hold beneficial ownership information in the same way an operating company does, so the regime allows a suitably licensed intermediary to hold and supply that information to the Cayman Islands Competent Authority on request instead.
CIMA-registered mutual funds and private funds may appoint a Licensed Contact Person rather than maintaining a full beneficial ownership register.
Within 24 hours of the request, or within any other timeframe the Competent Authority reasonably specifies.
Yes, provided the provider is licensed or registered by CIMA to hold beneficial ownership information. This is a common arrangement for Cayman Islands funds.
No. The fund remains responsible for ensuring accurate beneficial ownership information exists and can be produced; the Licensed Contact Person changes how that information is reported, not whether it must exist.