CAPTIVE INSIGHT
McLaughlin hailed the agreement as exactly
what the Cayman government had been
pushing for a period of over three years.
International recognition of the strength of
the Cayman system and avoiding a public
central register, which in the absence of
a global standard requiring such, would
place Cayman at a distinct disadvantage in
competitive terms with other jurisdictions.
The current system in Cayman involves
licensed Cayman corporate service
providers uploading beneficial information
on their clients on a monthly basis to a
secure platform. According to the Ministry of
Financial Services, the security of Cayman’s
technology has been third-party verified by
a top global accounting firm and is safe and
secure. “The Cayman Islands Government
is confident in the authenticity of the
beneficial ownership information held in
the jurisdiction,” the Ministry said. “Through
the monthly collection of decentralised
information from licensed corporate service
providers, Government can ensure the
details held on its centralised platform are
kept updated and made accessible to the
necessary competent authorities under the
appropriate circumstances.”
That’s why the surprise announcement in
May 2018, that the Overseas Territories
would be forced to introduce public registers,
if they had not done so by 2020, has caused
such alarm both for the government and
the financial services industry. The whole
episode is further compounded by the UK’s
different constitutional relationship with its
Crown Dependencies, which meant it would
be unable to issue the same ‘order in council’
to force compliance in what is now a little
over a year’s time, leaving Jersey Guernsey
and the Isle of Man apparently, off the hook
for now.
The Cayman Islands Ministry of Financial
Services told Captive Insight that while it is
aware of the UK government’s decision to
require the Cayman Islands, as well as the
other Overseas Territories, to establish a
public register of beneficial ownership by
2020, it objects on the grounds that this act
of the British Parliament is in conflict with
the Cayman Islands Constitution. “Cayman’s
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