The OECD has certainly provided The Bahamas Prime Minister, Hubert A Ingraham, with the opportunity to travel. Mr Ingraham, who has barely had time to unpack his suitcase from last month's official visit to the USA and Canada, departed on Saturday for a four week tour of Europe. Both trips are part of a concerted effort to restore The Bahamas' reputation as a leading finance centre in the Caribbean after its recent blacklisting by the OECD and FATF as a harmful tax haven with inadequate anti-money laundering controls.
Echoing the North America agenda, Mr Ingraham's European mission is an exercise in damage limitation and to discuss the blacklisting with government representatives and leading financial and banking institutions. Accompanying him to Europe are a number of senior Bahamian ministers including the finance minister Sir William Allen, the Central Bank Governor Julian Francis and Carl Bethel, the Minister of State for Economic Development. The delegation will meet with each of the multilateral bodies that were party to the "naming and shaming" of the Bahamas with regards to anti-money laundering processes, tax competition and international financial stability.
The delegation's first port of call was Paris, where discussions took place with the Secretary General of the OECD. A press release from The Bahamas government said that the meeting's agenda was to establish a 'clear understanding of what is required of the Bahamas to be removed from the "harmful tax competition" listing by the organization, putting the Bahamas in a better position to evaluate the likely impact of legislative and administrative initiatives now under consideration by the government.'
Further talks in Paris will be with the heads of the major French banks that are licensed to operate in the Bahamas. Mr Ingraham intends to inform them of the Bahamas' efforts to reform legislation and tighten financial sector regulations in order to ensure its position as a competitive and stable financial centre.
From France, the delegation is expected to travel to Madrid to meet with the President of the FATF, where further discussions about the Bahamas' money laundering tag will take place. According to the press release, Mr Ingraham is determined to extract from the FATF a 'clear understanding of its unfavourable evaluation of the Bahamas so that informed decisions can be made with regard to remedial action to be taken by the government to enhance and strengthen its anti-money laundering processes.'
The next round of talks will take place in Geneva with bank representatives, and then on to Prague where Mr Ingraham will represent the Bahamas at the annual IMF and World Bank meetings. Continuing with its whirlwind tour, the Bahamas delegation will return to Switzerland for talks with the Swiss Minister of Finance, and various banking institutions, including the Bank for International Settlements and the Swiss Central Bank. The penultimate visit will be to the Netherlands where meetings are scheduled with the Minister of Finance and yet more banking representatives.
Finally, before he can draw breath, Mr Ingraham and his group will conclude their mission in London. As well as officially opening the Bahamas Maritime Authority offices, Mr Ingraham will speak with the UK's Financial Services Authority and with the heads of British banking institutions operating in the Bahamas.
Upon his return to his home country on October 14th, Mr Ingraham is likely to be faced with some controversy. His previous trip to North America resulted in a decision to implement urgent legislative amendments; but the opposition parties' response was to launch a vitriolic attack on Mr Ingraham as they accused him of bowing down before the bullying powers of the OECD, and rushing through the reforms without their consultation. Any reforms Mr Ingraham feels impelled to make as a result of this European trip are bound to incite further friction among the parties.
Let's hope that, at the very least, Prime Minister Ingraham will be able to collect a decent amount of air miles from his trip.
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