Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea, was until now perhaps best known for its long-running 1990s civil war, which spawned a number of international scandals, including the Sandline Affair, and the 2012 film Mr. Pip, starring Hugh Laurie.
But the Pacific archipelago has now come back on the agenda, thanks to the Bougainville Offshore Financial Authority (bofa).
For the low, low price of just $20,000, this new “regulator” issues brokerage licenses and investment management licenses. It also offers crypto service provider (VASP) licenses for $5,500.
That’s on top of a company formation fee of just $1,300, application fee of $600, and annual renewal fee of $600 – of course.
However, prospective applications should be wary not to fall foul of its $1,500 per month late payment penalty.
bofa also offers licenses across almost every other conceivable financial services sector, including banking, insurance, and gambling.
Its website was only registered in November 2025, while the organisation officially launched in December, so all this has been quick off the mark – who the “mark” is, we can only speculate.
It bills itself as “Financial Regulator – In Pacific Ocean [sic]” and also states it will be attending the Dubai FinTech Summit 2026.
bofa’s growth strategy includes a referral-based “partner programme” – of course – with individuals compensated for the number of licenses sold.
This starts at 10% of 1-10 licenses sold and rises to 25% above 25 licenses sold.
It is (hopefully) needless to say, that this typically is not how reputable regulators whose licenses are recognised as legally valid around the world operate.
In its defence, in what appears to be a press release uploaded to social networking site Medium, bofa has sought to differentiate itself from disreputable “regulators”, including in Comoros, Anjouan, and Mwali.
Instead, it seeks to draw upon the pedigree of fellow Pacific-island nation Vanuatu, which has recently established itself as a legitimate hub for offshore brokers.
In the article, titled From Paper Banks to Public Authority: Why Bougainville Outshines Anjouan and Mwali for Financial Licenses, bofa is touted as offering “credible, government-backed licensing for inward investment and economic activities”.
The author, named as Merrill Fabry – Commissioner of the Bougainville Offshore Gaming Authority (boga), also established in December – whose writing appears to have some stylistic resemblance to that of Chat GPT, noted that Comoros, Anjouan and Mwali had been plagued by “fake regulators and fraud”.
“Enter Bougainville, an autonomous Pacific region with constitutional fiscal powers under the 2004 framework and Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA),” they added.
“Bougainville aligns with best practices. Its BPA-mandated fiscal autonomy includes robust revenue powers (Sections 137–148), supporting compliant financial services without PNG national overreach.“
We will leave it to the reader to decide whether to trust in such assurances.
“In fintech’s compliance crunch, plant your flag where statutes stand, not sands shift,” the article concluded.
