Author Archives ftswp_adm

In this half day seminar topics include: the essentials of the Common Reporting Standard from the Director of the DITC, dealing with the differences between CRS and FATCA in your procedures and a hands on case study on how to prepare for the key elements of CRS.

Local consulting firm FTS has launched a survey to capture the level of awareness and training on two recent financial services initiatives, FATCA and CRS.

“These two initiatives are considered fairly recent and it would be useful to understand the general level of awareness and training to date. That type of information, particularly when broken down by industry, positions, number of years experience, etc. can help to inform others in the industry responsible for training, but it’s also a great way to measure the general compliance culture with respect to these issues”, said Mr. Paul Byles, Director of FTS.

In its latest supervisory issues circular (#3), CIMA noted that some licensees did not adequately update their policies and procedures manuals to take into account changes to legislation and regulations.

Carrying out periodically reviews of your existing procedures against the most up to date regulatory requirements and with an updated risk assessment of your business is key to effective risk management and passing your next onsite inspection.

‘Education is the key’ should be more than just a political buzz phrase. But sadly that has not been the case in Cayman for more than 3 decades.

In this country we enjoyed very successful growth while ignoring the need to, not only ensure that our children are better prepared for a changing economy, but that today’s education curriculum and the quality of our primary and high school graduates is of the highest standards that we can achieve with our limited resources.

IFCs should use objective measures of their perception to better tackle the reputational challenge.

For the most part, anyone listening to the debate on offshore centers (or IFCs) would conclude that despite the jurisdictions spending millions of dollars on improving their regulatory infrastructures and public relations, there remains a significant negative perceptions of so-called “tax havens.”

British journalist Jacques Peretti in Cayman.

All the fuss over the recent BBC documentary should not be about its content but rather how we managed to get “spun” so easily by a journalist yet again.

The BBC documentary “Britain’s Trillion Pound Island” was a classic example of a piece of entertainment posing as an insightful documentary. Before launching into a criticism of the documentary, we should recognize that there were in fact many moments of truth in it.