Banking (Victoria Falls International Financial Services Centre) (Arbitration) Regulations, 2026

These regulations set up the dispute resolution machinery for the Victoria Falls International Financial Services Centre, and they establish a Victoria Falls International Arbitration Centre to run it. They complement the VFIFSC General Regulations (S.I. 29 of 2025).

The requirement that matters most commercially is in section 14: before an applicant is approved as a participant in the centre, it must enter into an arbitration agreement with the Centre in the manner the rules prescribe, in writing. Arbitration is therefore not an option participants negotiate — it is a condition of entry. Non-participants may also elect to bring commercial or delictual disputes to the centre.

The Arbitration Centre has exclusive administration of arbitrations governed by these regulations, subject to the parties' agreement, with rules covering expedited arbitration, emergency arbitrators and investment treaty disputes. It is headed by a Registrar who constitutes the tribunal and the appeals tribunal, manages cases, and keeps a database of eligible arbitrators. The Registrar, the Centre, the tribunal and their staff are immune from liability except for bad faith, and arbitrators are liable only for conscious and deliberate wrongdoing.

Proceedings begin when a request to refer a dispute is received by the respondent. The claimant serves a notice of arbitration naming the parties, the arbitration agreement, the contract or facts, the claim and amount, the relief sought and a proposal on the number of arbitrators; the respondent has 30 days to reply, and may plead lack of jurisdiction, propose or appoint an arbitrator and raise counterclaims. A missing or late response does not hold up constitution of the tribunal.

Unless the parties agree otherwise there are three arbitrators: each party nominates one, and those two appoint a chairperson within seven days; if the parties do not nominate, the Registrar appoints all three and that decision cannot be appealed. Nationality is no bar. A prospective arbitrator must disclose anything giving rise to justifiable doubts about impartiality or independence, and must keep disclosing throughout. A challenge must be brought within 15 days of learning the grounds; if the tribunal rejects it, the challenging party has 30 days to take it to the Appeals Tribunal, and the arbitration may continue meanwhile.

All information relating to the proceedings is confidential during and after the arbitration, unless the parties agree to disclosure or the Appeals Tribunal orders it. The tribunal rules on its own jurisdiction, with an arbitration clause treated as independent of the contract that contains it, and may order interim measures. A party who proceeds without objecting to non-compliance waives the objection.

The remaining Parts cover equal treatment, procedure, seat, language, statements of claim and defence, hearings, default, tribunal-appointed experts, court assistance in taking evidence, the form and content of awards, settlement, correction and additional awards, setting aside as the exclusive recourse, and the grounds for refusing recognition or enforcement.

The arbitration and mediation rules themselves are made, amended or revoked by the Minister and come into force on a day the Minister directs, so the detailed procedure sits outside this instrument.