UK chancellor backs Cayman’s position on beneficial ownership
George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer
(CNS Business): The government has released the response it received from Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to the letter sent to him by Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton about the Cayman government’s position on the sharing of beneficial ownership information. The UK’s senior Cabinet minister has accepted that any new future regime or mechanism must protect confidentiality and security and has assured the local government that the jurisdiction will get a seat at the table during the future talks.
Osborne lauded the Cayman Islands Government for its proactive position and said the lead taken by the jurisdiction on transparency had helped with the uptake of global standards. The chancellor also support the government’s call for standards that apply to all nations.
“I also very much agree with your comments about the importance of a level playing field and hope that we can work together to convince all countries and jurisdictions to join this important initiative,” he wrote.
So far, Cayman has shown its willingness over the exchange of detailed information on the real owners of company’s trusts, funds and other financial entities and vehicles registered in the Cayman Islands but only to law enforcement agencies and tax authorities. The government is refusing to create an open public central register unless that becomes the global standard, as it believes that the release of information does not need to be open to all.
Premier Alden McLaughlin is pushing hard on this issue to ensure that the Cayman government is at the table to help shape the future exchange mechanism without resorting to a public register.
Letter from Chancellor George Osborne to Cayman Minister Wayne Panton, 10 May 2016
Category: Finance, Financial Services
Does this mean that all the anti UK crap that our radio talk show hosts spit out every morning ….is just that …crap
Just imagine where we would be if Mac had represented us, just about now we’d all be packing to leave as he raged and ranted against the Brits.
Then he would buy himself a private jet for diplomatic visits to Las Vegas.
In very large part yes!
Anybody else remember the famous Non-Aggression pact with Britain letter from Adolf Hitler, that Neville Chamberlain brought back in 1938, declaring – “peace in our time”. About a year later, the sh*t hit the fan.
What’s this nonsense about an “open public central register”. The British Government may be writing polite letters but make no mistake it will achieve it’s agenda of obtaining details of beneficial ownership either by consent, or failing that, through enforced legislation.
The UK may officially lobby the EU to seek that public registers are not a requirement to avoid blacklisting but in private in Berlaymont and Whitehall it is known that the UK is not opposed to such a proposal.
That is a very nicely written XXXX off letter.