(CNS Business): Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie recently accepted the appointment as a Judicial Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), according to the organisations management.  The Council of the Cayman Islands branch nominated the chief justice as a result of his contribution to trusts law jurisprudence. Smellie joins a number of other judicial appointees but is only the second justice to be offered membership in the Caribbean region, alongside Justice David Hayton of the Caribbean Court of Justice. "It is with great pleasure that I report the Honourable Chief Justice Smellie's acceptance of this distinction,” said STEP Chairman Nigel Porteous. 

(CNS Business): Tourism officials celebrated a recording-breaking March with the best air arrivals figure since the Department of Tourism began keeping official statistics in 2000. However, the record breaking number of stayover visitors was dampened by the figures for the George Town port, as cruise arrival statistics plummeted to a low not seen for some 12 years. According to the latest figures from the DoT, 43,327 people arrived in the Cayman Islands by air in March, which is not only the busiest March on record but is the most passengers to arrive in a one month period in the islands’ history. 

(CNS Business): Financial transparency activists are claiming a major victory following the call from David Cameron, the UK prime minster,  last week to “break through the walls of corporate secrecy” that the group claims facilitates tax dodging, money laundering, and corruption. Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advocacy organisation, said Cameron promised to aggressively fight tax haven secrecy in his correspondence with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and welcomed the move towards automatic information exchange. GFI Director Raymond Baker, a longtime authority on financial crime, said that anonymous shell companies were still the most-widely used method for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion.

(CNS Business): Around 70 Cayman Islands Tourism Association members attended this year’s CITA AGM, where Ken Hydes, Camana Bay’s VP, was elected as president of the private sector tourism body. Harry Lalli, the outgoing president, talked about the challenging times for tourism industry but noted that stayover numbers have increased every year for the past three years, which he said was down to the partnership of the tourism ministry and department with the private sector. Meanwhile, Hydes said CITA was positioned to be the driving force in the development of the industry, as he thanked Lalli for his past contribution.

(CNS Business): Local recruitment specialists Stepping Stones have won the title of this year’s Top Employer Award 2013 in the small-medium employer category.  This is the company’s second time shortlisted as a finalist and Managing Director Milly Serpell said the award validated the firms business practices. “It tells us we are on the right path to ensuring our people are supported, motivated, and rewarded in our workplace,” she added.  The awards were created by the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resource Professionals in 2009 to recognises employers that attract and retain employees, contribute to the community and create an environment that exemplifies respect, fairness and pride in the workplace.

(CNS Business): Following her admission to the Cayman Bar last month in front of Justice Alex Henderson, Maples newest qualified attorney, Kaneesa Ebanks has already gone to Dublin for a six week secondment at Avolon one of the world's leading aircraft leasing and management services firms. During her secondment Ebanks will be working closely with Avolon's internal general counsel, Ed Riley and his in-house team. Alasdair Robertson, Maples and Calder's Global Head of the Finance group said the opportunity to work directly on the front line with a client will be a great benefit to Ebanks’s legal career. In the face of continuing controversy about the employment of Caymanian lawyers Maples said it has been committed to recruiting, training and promoting aspiring lawyers  for many years.

(CNS Business): Three young Caymanians attending the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) this summer will be helped on the road to leadership with some cash from a local law firm. Ciara Henry, Ryan Japal and Henry Hill were given US$500 toward their registration and related attendance costs for the conference by Maples recently who described the three youngsters as ambitious and talented. The GYLC is a leadership development program that brings together outstanding young people from around the world to build critical leadership skills in a global context. The Caymanian students attending this year will be going to China and Europe.

(CNS Business): Locally based international law firm Mourant Ozannes has set the date for its third annual International Trusts & Private Client Conference in the Cayman Islands for October.  The firm said the private client event  will bring together attorneys from Mourant Ozannes' International Trusts & Private Client (ITPC) team with other well known experts in the field to talk to delegates on an array of topics. Morven McMillan, who heads the Mourant Ozannes' ITPC team in Cayman will co-chair the conference with Shân Warnock-Smith QC.  Other speakers include: Joshua Rubenstein of Katten Muchin Rosenman in New York, Clare Maurice of Maurice Turnor Gardner in London, Graeme Kleiner of Speechly Bircham in London, Anthony Poulton of Baker & McKenzie in London and Steven L. Cantor of Cantor & Webb LLP in Miami as well as local speakers Jonathan Speck, Shaun Folpp, Ed Devenport, Lucy Diggle and Christopher Edwards.

(CNS Business): Although government had forecast generating close to $3 million dollars from Cayman Enterprise City (CEC) in this budget and for at least two subsequent fiscal years, government accountants have been forced to dramatically revise that position after Cayman’s first special economic zone has generated only $200,000 for government coffers this year. The zone, which was granted special status under the law, was expected to attract new science and technology industries to Cayman that would eventually be housed in a state-of-the-art campus. As a result of the zone’s special status, the companies registered there pay no duty, work permits or the usual license fees but just a one-off registration fee.

(CNS): The failure of government and the private sector to pull together new corporate governance standards in time to collect newly proposed fees on hedge fund directors is partly to blame for government’s revenue predictions falling short of the anticipated $80 million surplus, as had been required by the UK in this year’s budget. Speaking about the issues on Thursday at the Cabinet press briefing, Deputy Premier and Financial Services Minister Rolston Anglin said that some of the $30 million of revenue the government had hoped to earn, but didn’t, was dependent on the fees that will eventually come from the hedge fund industry and new regulations.

(CNS Business): The Cayman government has taken the initiative over the G5’s pilot project on multi-lateral automatic exchange of information for tax purposes and told the UK’s prime minister that it would like to participate. Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly told members of the press that she has written to David Cameron to demonstrate Cayman’s willingness to move towards automatic exchange. She said that the local government had not been pressured into the move but was doing so willingly, adding that it was part of the country’s continuing commitment on tax exchange. However, she pointed to the need for support and recognition from the UK government that Cayman is a willing and cooperative partner in the goal to achieve transparency.

(CNS Business): Local telecommunications company LIME introduced the new BlackBerry® Z10 smartphone at a launch hosted at the Cayman Islands National Gallery in George Town, Grand Cayman, on Monday. The new smartphone, now on sale here, is the first BlackBerry to launch with the re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry 10 platform, giving customers a powerful mobile computing experience. Customers who purchase the new BlackBerry Z10 from LIME will also have the opportunity to win one of three trips for two to see Alicia Keys’ 'Set The World On Fire' concert in Prague on 12 June.

(CNS Business): Investment funds and finance specialist Mark Lewis has been named Senior Partner at Walkers, one of Cayman’s leading firms in offshore financial and transactional law. In a release announcing his appointment, Walkers said Lewis would continue to work closely with Walkers' Global Investment Funds Group as he becomes just the third person to hold the top spot in the firm’s 50 year history. Lewis has more than three decades of post qualification experience in all aspects of corporate and investment funds work. He joined Walkers’ Cayman office as an Associate in 1994 and was appointed Partner after four years.

(CNS Business): The local financial industry’s representative body has welcomed the findings of the independent assessment by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which demonstrated that standards for transparency and tax information have been properly implemented in the Cayman Islands. The CEO of Cayman Finance said the results were not surprising as the jurisdiction has always complied fully with reasonable global standards. The chairman of Insurance Managers Association of Cayman (IMAC) hoped people would begin to understand the high level of compliance that there is in Cayman.

(CNSBusiness): The chairman of the National Building Society of Cayman (NBSC) has paid tribute to its general manager, Dunbar McFarlane, who retired this month after almost ten years with Cayman’s only building society. Earl Jarrett said McFarlane had guided the organisation through one of the most difficult periods in Cayman’s history, repositioning the institution to grow the value and range of its services. Despite McFarlane's  skills over the last decade, the chairman pointed to the challenges that remain for the Cayman economy and said strategies had to be devised to make the islands more hospitable to business, “so that we can see the end of this financial storm,” he added.