Chairman's Blog

CIFSA was pleased to hear that the Cayman Islands Government (CIG) was able to obtain a seat on the 14 nation Steering Group responsible for assisting in the restructuring of policy for the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information. The Global Forum is the final decision making body for OECD on these matters.

The Steering Group will receive detailed methodology and terms of reference from a Peer Review Group that is currently setting up a ‘robust, transparent and accelerated process’ that will evaluate how countries implement tax information exchange agreements.

CIFSA has been encouraging the CIG to develop closer ties with overseas governments and international bodies such as the OECD, which were going to introduce new legislation and regulations affecting our industry.  And, as they have thus far done in other areas, the CIG responded in a timely and effective manner.  In some ways we are seeing a return of the public/private sector partnership that first made Cayman great.

It is vital for Cayman to have a seat at the table to ensure decisions are based on factual evidence and not political expedience.  The OECD’s willingness to invite OFC’s into this process offers new hope that the process will be open and fair to all parties.  This is yet another opportunity to communicate to foreign governments our jurisdiction’s record with respect to regulation and compliance, and to dispel myths about our financial services industry.

Needless to say CIFSA will continue to closely monitor the OECD process as well as legislative initiatives around the globe that could impact our jurisdiction.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 am and is filed under G20, OECD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.