Industry rejects need for latest financial bills
(CNS): Comments sent to the Ministry of Financial Services by the Cayman Islands Company Managers Association indicate that a batch of bills being circulated to provide more accounting oversight are completely unnecessary and will lead to a loss of business. The industry body noted that changes to several financial sector laws are being proposed because of a OECD global report on tax issues, but noted that the report found that Cayman was already 100% compliant.
“One would have thought that an effectiveness percentage of 100% would rank fairly high on the effectiveness scale,” CICMA stated in its collective written submissions.
The association represents more than three dozen corporate service firms whose business is governed by the legislation surrounding company management and will be the most, though not the only, offshore industry players that would be impacted by the latest rule changes.
In its submissions about the amendments to the bills, CICMA said that the proposed raft of changes would impose even more burdens on stakeholders in financial services at a time when there have been a significant number of additional obligations placed on the industry while it is also battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
And CICMA said these changes are totally unnecessary. Referring to the proposed requirement in the law to increase existing reporting from annually to twice yearly, the association said, “In our opinion, Cayman will lose more companies as a result of this added obligation.”
Some of the new proposed changes are not only unnecessary but also difficult to do and even harder to charge for, which would increase their work load without any prospect of remuneration, CICMA said. These types of changes, which are not necessary because the system is not broken, “drive a wedge” between corporate service providers here and their clients, the industry stakeholders noted.
“In our opinion, the price of trying to fix what ain’t broken is too high for corporate service providers who are already reeling from the various impositions in this year of Covid-19,” CICMA added.
The submission to the ministry said that while the Global Forum Report may have made recommendations for more oversight of accounting information, the very same report found that the regime here was already 100% effective. Therefore, the government should resist further obligations.
However, foreseeing that government is likely to ignore their concerns and press on anyway, the CICMA asked that, if these new requirements are to be imposed, the government at the very least waits until the end of next year before implementing them.
See the submissions in the CNS Library.
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Category: Business, Financial Services
The U.S. economy grew at a record annualized rate of 33.1% between July and September because they opened up and are living with covid. There are areas of lots of covid but most places in the States are much like Cayman where they see nothing of Covid with their own eyes unless its from a TV or Computer screen. Cayman will not open to covid so it will die from a crumbling economy driven by fear. Not to worry. Americans, Canadians, and many other nationalities that survived will buy up Cayman. Then the Dumb will finally get fixed.
Some much rules, regulation and anti-business requirements making it harder and harder to do business in the Cayman Islands. Continue on this path Government and pretty soon we will be a banana republic. At least those countries have bananas, we really don’t. I wonder if the UK is gonna bail us out then?
They are helter skelter in the Ministry of Financial Services. Check out the list of legislation.Sometimes 2 or 3 versions in a few months. They do not seem to have any firm policy and just act in a knee jerk manner. They get worse every year and put businesses and regulators under unnecessary pressure.
Tourism is already in the crapper and Tara trying to flush the only working part of the economy down the drain.
Tara kissing up to the Brits again. All to our detriment!
Why is May 2021 taking so long to get here?
Typical response from the whacky private sector who contributed to our blacklisting.
Thankfully CIG pulled the private sector to the table and got us off the list.
Don’t we recall the private sector scandals like euro Bank and BCCI and don’t forget the recent arrest of the private sector worker in florida.
Thank you CIG hold their feet to the fire n
It was actually the Cayman Government that put us on the blacklist because they missed an important regulatory filing deadline. Get your facts straight. This would not have happened if it was the private sector making the filing!!!
The Ministry put us on the black list by the vacillation of the Minister in January. She should have been fired.
I remember the only scandal around Euro Bank was how the UK foreign office acted before, during and afterward accompanied by how much the accounting firm handling the litigation plundered.
Unna start unna shit again!
Cayman does not exist in a parallel universe.
It must move with the times.
The local financial services sector continues to place a noose around our collective necks.
In a nutshell, you need to do what the law firms, accounting firms and corporate services people tell you to do about things like this. Otherwise the financial services part of your economy will got straight down the crapper with your tourist business. ALL of your government revenue comes directly or indirectly from these two economic engines. Your founders back in the 60’s -70’s understood this.
Our founders must have had a lot more intelligence than our current leaders. I wonder why?
Caymanians do not take advice from non Caymanians. That is why you have professional Caymanians but no Caymanian Professionals. Not to worry if you can’t figure that out. It only proves my point.
Once you create a quasi-governmental body like this, I guarantee you they will have a new set of recommendations for you to improve things every year, or two at the most. If the local association is correct, Cayman is compliant with their plan for tax information exchange and, frankly, after reading the proposed law it is hard to see how it would make you more compliant. You should not do anything new for these people until at least 81 of the 161 countries plus the UK have gone first, and then only after thinking about it hard. You are a target, the Botswanas and Bangladeshes of the world are not. (Not long ago you were doing bilateral tax treaties like the US does, what happened to that?) Just because Tara effed up the other day doesn’t mean you have to roll over on this one.
What does Cayman Finance have to say about this?
Who?
Thank you CICMA for trying to help government avoid making another massive mistake
This lot including in charge including Tara Rivers must be trying to destroy the company management part of industry with these ridiculous laws and amendments.
Thank you Company Managers Association for bringing some common sense and logic to this unnecessary process. No other jurisdiction is passing these sort of laws so what is the government doing and why are they making business harder and more expensive? Are they trying to shut down this sector?
Unaah better do wha mama say or else somebodeee nah goin get dey lickle Knighthood. Amen
Loss of shell company business….maybe OECD should look at Cayman again.
You have no clue what you are talking about
You may need to be corrected I am afraid. To form a Cayman Islands exempted company (not a locally trading ordinary company) you must go through a CIMA licensed service provider. CIMA mandates that each service provider has a written policy of no shell companies. Thereafter CIMA have engaged audit firms to go through client lists, service provider files and policies to ensure adherence. As a result a shell company formation is not possible in the Cayman Islands. It has not been possible for about 20 years. Cayman has no shell company business and perhaps it is Delaware you are getting confused about?
Well it kinda depends on your definition of shell company. Companies set up to receive payments on an offshore loan by a group of US pension plans so that the interest is not taxable in the US until the lender decides to bring it home meets most people’s definition and this happens routinely.
Let’s just drop the farce of “consultation” with stakeholders. CIG will not stand up for the local FS industry and just approves any request from the Tax Justice Network to impose more filings and fees on a client base that will soon move to another jurisdiction.