Mauritius Financial Services Commission outlines licensing requirements and fees for single and multi-family offices

The Mauritius Financial Services Commission published an overview of Mauritius’s Family Office Licence scheme, setting out how single-family and multi-family offices are authorised and the core operating requirements. The scheme allows high-net-worth single and multi-family offices to be domiciled in Mauritius to hold international assets and funds, and prohibits the provision of family office services without an FSC licence. Family offices are licensed under Part VI of the Financial Services Act 2007 through two licence types, the Family Office (Single) licence (F.S 1.15) and the Family Office (Multiple) licence (F.S 1.16). Processing and annual fees are set at USD 2,500 and USD 5,000 for the single-family licence and USD 5,000 and USD 10,000 for the multi-family licence, with minimum stated unimpaired capital of USD 35,000 (SFO) and USD 75,000 (MFO). The note references the Financial Services (Family Office) Rules 2020 (consolidated in 2021 and 2022), including expectations such as professional indemnity cover, an annual compliance statement and a risk management framework, alongside governance and AML roles including a designated officer, a Money Laundering Reporting Officer and deputy MLRO, and at least two full-time officers. It also highlights criteria such as Mauritius-based office premises, minimum resident professional staffing (one for SFO and three for MFO), assets and/or investments under management of at least USD 5 million, and a tax holiday period of 10 income years from the licence date for both licence types.