Cayman fighting tax evasion, Rivers tells New Yorkers
Minister Rivers at the Cayman Finance Breakfast
(CNS): Financial Services Minister Tara Rivers told an audience in New York this week that the Cayman Islands had been doing good work in the fight against tax evasion, money laundering and countering terrorist financing, as she delivered an address at the 6th Annual Cayman Finance New York Breakfast Briefing at the Harvard Club. The Cayman delegation had opted for a show of force, with Governor Martyn Roper also making it clear to guests that the financial sector in Cayman had the backing of the United Kingdom. Premier Alden McLaughlin said the jurisdiction was doing all it could to meet the continuing challenges faced by the financial sector.
Rivers told the New York guests that the work the Cayman Islands is doing had been recognised by the OECD and the jurisdiction continues to comply with its most recent ‘economic substance’ requirements as well as those of the EU, according to a press release from the premier’s office.
She said that the presence at the event of the governor, the premier, the attorney general and herself “underscores our commitment to the financial services industry”.
Explaining that the sector accounts for roughly 56% of Cayman’s GDP, the minister said the breakfast event was an opportunity to provide a key policy update on the work of the past year and providing insight into the plans for the year ahead.
“Cayman will continue being a place for sound business long into the future because we will continue to meet internationally adopted standards,” she said. “Over the many decades we have demonstrated that we have the expertise and the resiliency needed in order to successfully navigate change, for the benefit of our clients and our country as a whole. As our history has shown us, the future of the Cayman Islands is bright.”
The premier told the more than 150 attendees that the Cayman Islands remained bullish about the prospects of financial services business in our jurisdiction and that the country and government were gearing up for opportunities to successfully meet the challenges and uncertainties of the future. He told the audience about the meetings in Europe last week where the delegation had engaged in well over a dozen meetings to promote Cayman’s positive part in global finance.
“We wanted to ensure that the EU Commission, the Code of Conduct Group and member states understand that Cayman is meeting the commitments we made and to provide opportunities for them to raise any concerns,” McLaughlin said. “Conversations were professional and frank and mostly positive.”
McLaughlin spoke about new Ministry of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs, which has been set up to better coordinate Cayman’s work in promoting the Cayman Islands overseas. He also told them about the United Kingdom’s assistance to establish Cayman’s own Asia Office based in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday evening the Cayman delegation attended the Cayman Finance New York Reinsurance Roundtable, which was also at the Harvard Club, where the governor, premier and Rivers promoted Cayman as a domicile for reinsurance business. Rivers said Cayman Islands is working to attract large-scale reinsurance operations.
“There are now at least ten sizeable reinsurance operations in Cayman, including four Class D licences,” she said.
Backing her up, the premier said his presence along with the governor, the AG and the financial services minister demonstrated the Cayman Islands Government’s full support for the continued development and growth of the reinsurance industry in this jurisdiction.
The main event of the evening was the panel discussion that included professionals in the market who spoke of the many benefits to their companies of being domiciled in the Cayman Islands, including the way the jurisdiction works with them to not only set up business, but to be successful.
Category: Business, Financial Services
Money Laundering.
How is it being fought where it is being done so blatantly?
What are the Checks and Balances?
What a joke.
Americans have been taking their monies out of their banks here and investing in property/homes/etc. in anticipation of possible Beneficial Ownership exposure.
Surely that is known.
Sideshow Bob on the road again.
Ahh, the tears of a clown
Our team is perfect. The audience is not looking for a place with tough, effective regulators. They don’t care what the EU or the OECD think. They just want a place with rules that fit well in the gaps of the US tax code.
. . . until Trump scrutinizes.
So She say….
The IRS is a global toxic cancer. The sooner we find a cure, the better. For the first time in history, Switzerland has no more numbered accounts. The IRS is a global toxic cancer that needs to be irradicated. Most of us don’t want drug or terrorist money to land here; if you have made money in your life, you should be able to park that money wherever most benefits you. Our abilities to self-govern financially are being completely controlled — as is everyone else in the world — by the [expletive] US IRS. Enough is enough.
God bless you Tara and Hon. Premier!
When people ask “What would Jesus do?”, the answer is unlikely to be to facilitate the rich to avoid paying money to help the poor, young and needy. Just sayin’.
Is it the comedy festival with material like that?
She better be careful saying that kind of thing in New York.
Especially with the Oleg Deripaska / Paul Manafort link to Cayman. More to come with the Mueller Report later this year.
How many people out there think anyone at this event took either of them seriously? The problem with spouting rhetoric like that in front of this kind of audience is it falls on deaf ears. If you want to convince people give them verifiable statistics – like how many people have been caught money laundering by the regulators in these islands. Otherwise it’s just like trying to shovel s*** up a steep hill.