The enactment of the Financial Services Commission Act in December 2001 established the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (FSC) as an autonomous regulatory authority responsible for the permission, regulation, supervision of all financial services in and from within the BVI, which includes insurance, banking, fiduciary services, trustee business, company management, investment business, and insolvency services, as well as the registration of companies, limited partnerships and intellectual property. Since 2002, FSC assumed the responsibility for functions previously carried out by the Government through the Financial Services Department. FSC, as financial services regulator, is also responsible for promoting public understanding of the financial system and its products, policing the perimeter of regulated activity, reducing financial crime, and preventing market abuse.