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Bahamian Minister Outlines New Legislation, Simplified Compliance

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, New York

18 November 2002

Speaking to the Bahamas' Institute of Chartered Accountants, Allyson Maynard Gibson, Minister of Financial Services and Investments, outlined new legislation planned by the Government, and improvements expected to be implemented in KYC and other compliance procedures.

Emphasizing that the Ministry's 5 Year Strategic Plan recognizes the need for The Bahamas to “deepen its bench” if it intends to remain strong and grow, the Minister said that new legislation will be tabled in the foreseeable future to enable The Bahamas to provide new and better services and products such as e-commerce, captive insurance, foundations, Protected Cell Companies, pensions products (domestic and external), an Aircraft Registry, and an Arbitration Centre.

Ms Gibson said that there had been complaints about the lack of coordination between the regulators and the resulting inconvenience, red tape and expense. She said that the Bahamas now had 4 primary regulators and 1 supervisory body – the Central Bank, the Securities Commission, the Registrar of Insurance, the Inspector of Financial Services, and the Investors and Compliance Commission.

The Minister said that the regulators had executed a Memorandum of Understanding, which sought to ensure:

  • Co-ordination with on site inspection – a single team of regulators will conduct inspections rather than separate teams following each other with the resulting disruption of and cost to the business;
  • Acceptance of due diligence competed by other regulatory bodies. The acceptance by one regulator that an investor or subject of its jurisdiction as a fit and proper person, in the normal course of events, will be accepted by other regulators. If an application requires the attention of several regulators, common information requirements once accepted by the lead regulator will be accepted by all and only additional information specific to the other regulator will be required from the other regulator.

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