Premier praises CIMA director’s diplomacy

| 11/09/2014 | 0 Comments
CNS Business

Cindy Scotland, MD Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA)

(CNS Business): In the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly this week, Premier Alden McLaughlin recognised the diplomacy of the Managing Director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) following the islands’ inclusion on the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s ‘High Risk Countries’ list in July. Calling this action by the FCA “unwarranted” and “arbitrary”, he commended both Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton and CIMA MD Cindy Scotland for their handling of the situation.

“I believe that the approach taken has been instrumental in the outcomes of this matter; and that it has set the stage for the continuing and we trust, productive, conversations on a peer-to-peer basis between CIMA and the FCA, which is the regulator of the UK’s financial services industry,” he said.

McLaughlin said that CIMA’s vital role was to provide information to FCA officials to ensure that going forward; they are accurately informed about Cayman’s regime. “This would include providing them with third-party assessments and data that, while publicly available, apparently did not factor into the research that was conducted in the compilation of the FCA’s 18 July list.”

Insisting that the FCA’s list is not a ‘black list’, he said it could nevertheless could raise questions regarding Cayman’s reputation and this subsequently could affect our business.

“It is therefore necessary to safeguard against potential misinformation, if you will, by making sure that the FCA is aware of evidence such as Cayman’s ratings in the OECD’s 2013 Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes rankings; and our practices regarding the collection of KYC information on legal structures,” the premier told the House.

McLaughlin added that his planned trip to London this coming weekend to meet with the Treasury Minister and the Minister for Overseas Territories to address this issue was no longer necessary.

“We shall continue to carefully monitor this situation to ensure that the interests of the Cayman Islands are fully protected and defended,” he added.

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Category: Finance, Financial Services

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