Bills passed to improve BO disclosure regime
(CNS): Financial Services Minister André Ebanks has steered several bills through parliament, including a stand-alone Beneficial Transparency Ownership Act to improve the current regime on how information relating to who benefits from financial entities registered here is shared and to stay ahead of changing standards and rules.
Explaining the law during last week’s special parliamentary meeting, Ebanks said the bill consolidated the framework into a single act.
Ebanks said it was important to get ahead of standards on the international stage rather than being behind them and having “to scramble before the next assessment to push through legislation”, as this puts too much pressure on drafting and those involved.
The Cayman Islands has been collecting beneficial ownership for over two decades. After an exchange of notes agreement with the UK in 2016, some laws were introduced to require information to be shared with the register of companies. The issue has evolved over the last six years, and in 2019 Cayman was found to be only partially compliant over beneficial ownership because of inadequate sanctions over non-compliance and difficulties of verifying the information being submitted.
Since Cayman first rolled out relevant legislation on this subject, the rules and standards on the international stage continue to evolve, and Ebanks said this streamlining of the legislation would help the jurisdiction keep one step ahead.
However, he said that the commitment Cayman made in 2019 relating to the publication of public registers to the UK when open access becomes the global standard would not be adopted yet.
Ebanks explained that the European Court of Justice had ruled last year that the publication of ownership information was disproportionate and interfered with privacy rights. In light of this, his ministry took legal advice and as a result the general public register is unlikely to go ahead because it may not be constitutionally sound.
Nevertheless, the law provides a window for that to happen in the future or to give information to those that have a legitimate need. But the law also requires a resolution of the parliament, so it has ringfenced that situation until it becomes a global standard. Ebanks said there would be plenty of time next year for the public to consult and legislators to wrestle with that more controversial element of the evolving standards in relation to international finance and the offshore sector.
Alongside the new streamlined legislation on ownership transparency, Ebanks steered through another nine amendment bills to change existing financial sector related acts to tie in with the new BO act. The minister also said that the industry had been widely and extensively consulted over the law and helped shape the act.
“This is a bill that sets out a new vision for the Cayman Islands to be a step ahead, to not have to grapple with these issues on the back foot and capitalise on the success that we all share in being removed from the FATF grey list,” he said. “I would not like to see any other minister in that position again,” he added.
See the full debate on CIGTV here:
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Category: Business, Financial Services, Laws, Local News, Politics
The difference between the Financial Services Ministry and some of the other ministries is that most of the staff are highly educated and and actually qualified for their job. A good number are expats who can’t job hop, so there is also continuity. When you ask Andre he will tell you that the hard work getting off the gray list came from his ministry and the Attorney General’s office. Some of us are not so easily fooled by his rosary beads and inability to take a stand on anything that might lose him favor with voters. He is no different than the others who want to feather their nest – he is just more sneaky and articulate. He is still Wayne’s boy so lets see what happens when they bring the billion dollar budget.
what is cayman hiding?…if doing nothing wrong…why are they not relaeasing the information???
Because private finance isn’t the business of the public, unless there is something wrong. For those instances, there are already Memorandae of Understanding with foreign exchanges and regulators, automatic Tax information Exchange Agreements, and police mechanisms. The Pandora Papers disclosed volumes of info, much of it stale-dated by 20 or more years. Much of it, long ago, no longer possible. Test it out: try opening a bank account…see you in 6 months.
Took me one morning in butterfield with a letter from my employer…. What takes 6 months exactly?
Biggest lie ever! Especially when they have transitioned most of the work to their team in Canada.
You could be right, Robin. It took me three months after closing my very small account by drawing all the funds out, to stop them sending me ( from Halifax, Nova Scotia) really nasty threatening emails about what they were going to do to me if I didn’t complete all sorts of KYC forms….for an account that did not exist!
The BOB troll has entered the chat
You must be magic, now try it for a corporate account…
I agree, hard to say what takes 6 months, but try a business account and let us know how it’s going in spring-summer 2024.
What are you hiding? Please publish your name, address and list all your assets and valuations. No?
It’s hard to disagree with André’s sensibility, but dare compare this standard of transparency for private sector world with the public sector governance standard we are stuck with. The public can’t easily review registers of conflicts for serving MPs that can’t/won’t be published. Nor can we read transparent audit-worthy accounting/quarterly/annual reports concerning the use of the public’s money. Our Auditor General laments that this reporting continues to elude those tasked with delivering it. When/what was the last ACC prosecution, does anyone recall? If we are going to sell this idea that this regime are now the “good guys”, pursuing truth and justice, back it up with some proof. How about sponsoring a Bill to amend the Elections Law to ban convicted criminals…is that really too contentious a standard? Let the public see how this Parliament votes on that so they can see who is who. Shine the light in.
Yawn. Fix the damn dump.
Ironic that you bring that up in the context of a transparency discussion….ReGen didn’t win a transparent bidding process, it was awarded without a merit case presented by outgoing PPM/Unity in their last 10 minutes in office.
Cool story, except the part where it isn’t true.
Truth. Rebid it through a proper RFP.
Great, now can we do something about the BO on public buses?
*minivans
Cayman is always getting ahead of What exactly we will never know? This is just another colonial extortion/blackmail strategy to control others without being no longer present in colonial territories by persons who have never ever been elected by people to their post. Who are now blaming others for their financial woes without even looking at their past pillaging and wholesale rape of colonial possessions. Now they crying about what is right and fair economic competition. Everything was a ok when they ruled though. Karma Is real Bitch eh!
Good lord. That’s a lot of words. What are you saying though?
Season’s Greetings to Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein.
where are his beads now?
Jump the start & you get disqualified, not a medal.
Compliance with international obligations means, once again, erosion of and infringement of human rights and fundamental freedoms (enshrined in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights), particularly privacy rights.
I listened to Andre Ebanks making these presentations. He sounded articulate and very intelligent as if he really understood what he was saying and not just reciting what some civil servant had written for him. How on earth did he end up in Parliament??
We need 18 more Andrés.
Simply because he wished to serve his country.
That big big salary does it every time. If you don’t believe, ask them to cut their wages like take home wages in UK.
By being manipulative and sneaky!
Zzzz. Passed to appease his European masters.