Cayman Companies Register Down, Report Reveals

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

27 February 2003

According to General Registry figures, the number of companies registering in the Cayman Islands has steadily decreased over the past three years. However, speaking to the Cayman Net News service this week, Registrar General, Delano Solomon explained that there is not yet any cause for concern.

According to the official figures for January 2003 there were 587 new companies registered, compared with 613 for the same month in 2002, and 823 in January 2001. Full year figures show a similar decline, with 12,693 companies registering in 2000, 8,456 in 2001, and 7,106 last year.

However, according to Mr Solomon:

'We had a bumper year in 2000 when more than 12,000 companies registered, and it's true to say that since then we have experienced slight declines in the number of businesses that have registered, but there is no cause for alarm.'

'There will be a tendency for some people to expect that year after year there will be infinite increases in the number of companies registering, but that is not how things function. There will be highs, lows and plateaus, but at the end of the day I think the Cayman Islands continues to attract large numbers of businesses and we remain the preferred jurisdiction for business in the region.'

He concluded: 'There are more than 65,000 companies registered in the Cayman Islands and on a per capita basis, this in my view is quite encouraging.'

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