Comprehensive
Programme Q&A

The Government of Montserrat is in charge at every decision point. FCB executes under the Operating Agreement; the Minister, Cabinet, and Digital Residency Office retain statutory authority.

Yes — the Operating Agreement under Section 14 will include performance conditions and accountability mechanisms. The Government retains the statutory programme; FCB is a service operator, not a co-owner of the programme.

No. The programme is entirely civil and administrative — it issues a residency permit for digital use, not citizenship, not immigration rights, and not any change to constitutional status.

A layered compliance architecture anchored in existing Montserrat law, with independent government screening at every stage.

The programme is designed to be the opposite of a tax haven narrative — it is a transparent, regulated, identity-first infrastructure.

Liability sits with the Operating Agreement framework. The Minister can suspend issuance, the DRO can revoke individual permits, and FCB carries operational indemnity.

Yes, and they are deliberately conservative — and we show our workings. Base case assumes 1,000 MID applicants in Year 1, 78% retention at each renewal decision point (below Estonia's reported steady-state), graduated intake growth, and 45% IBC take-up activated under §5(1)(b) from Year 1 Q3.

Zero capital expenditure. The Government's contribution is legislative and administrative; FCB funds platform build, operations, marketing, and compliance infrastructure.

The Operating Agreement will specify a government-controlled escrow/settlement account with monthly reconciliation, audit rights, and published revenue reports. Full financial transparency is built into the programme structure.

FCB takes the complementary share of each fee — US$2,750 per initial application (covering the 3-year term) and US$1,750 per renewal (covering the 5-year term) — in exchange for building and operating the platform. Plus FCB operates the stablecoin rail in Year 2 under a separate operational split (Gov 30% / FCB 70% on user fees, Gov 60% / FCB 40% on reserve income). This is a long-term operating partnership, not a short-term vendor contract.

The Bill is the legal foundation. Without it, there is no statutory basis for issuing Digital Residency Permits, collecting fees, or operating the DRO.

IBC streamlining is one of the programme's most significant growth drivers — and there is strong international precedent for this. Estonia's e-Residency programme attributes much of its success to company registration: streamlined digital registration transformed e-Residency from an identity credential into a genuine economic engine.

Section 5(1)(b) provides the legal foundation for Montserrat to offer the same, and activation requires only a Minister's regulation. We would respectfully urge early Government support for the IBC element — it is the feature that makes MDRP genuinely competitive internationally, creates a substantial additional revenue stream, and follows the proven model of the world's most successful digital residency programme.

Digital identity launches first; IBC streamlining follows as the natural and immediate next priority.

The Bill has been stress-tested against the implementation design. The FCB team and Government legal counsel have refined it together through 21 sections and multiple review cycles. It is ready for parliamentary consideration.

The platform is ready. The first applicants can be processed within three months of the Operating Agreement being in place, starting with a pilot of 100 applicants.

Yes. The DRO is a small unit — a Director plus 2–3 officers initially — and FCB provides operational support through the Operating Agreement. Staffing grows with volume and is funded from programme revenue.

The platform is built for scale from day one. Throughput is bounded only by compliance review speed, and FIU/DRO review capacity can be expanded from programme revenue as volumes grow. Government controls the pace at every stage.

The programme is designed as a low-risk, low-cost initiative. Zero government capex means there is no sunk cost to defend. If targets are not met, the programme can be paused, restructured, or wound down under the Operating Agreement.

The Government owns the regulatory data record. Data architecture will be specified in the Operating Agreement; the design uses sovereign-grade infrastructure with Montserrat retaining the authoritative copy and full access rights.

The applicant-facing programme is a digital identity and permit system — the blockchain layer is a back-end architecture choice, not a requirement for the applicant or for the Government. It is best understood as a more secure and transparent database infrastructure.

Only through lawful channels — FIU cooperation, international requests under existing treaties, and transparent regulatory compliance. No commercial sharing of applicant data.

Montserrat has a unique positioning — British Overseas Territory credibility, Caribbean location, English common law, FSC-regulated financial services, and a reconstruction narrative that is globally sympathetic.

The global e-residency market is in its early scaling phase. Moving now means Montserrat establishes its premium brand before the space becomes commoditised. Every month of delay is a month where competing jurisdictions are advancing their own programmes.

Building this in-house would require significant capital expenditure and 2–3 years of staffing and development. FCB already has the platform, compliance architecture, and international channels in market. Partnering with FCB accelerates time-to-revenue while preserving Government's full statutory authority.

FCB's leadership brings deep expertise in digital identity, government advisory, and blockchain infrastructure. The Montserrat programme is the flagship launch — FCB's incentives are entirely tied to making it succeed, and the Operating Agreement ensures accountability through defined performance obligations.

The 1 May presentation is not asking Cabinet to pass the Bill. It is asking for four specific things: (1) endorsement in principle, (2) authorisation to proceed to Operating Agreement negotiation, (3) designation of the DRO host Ministry, and (4) agreement on the 3-month implementation target.