Cayman Financial Association Supports Information Exchange With EU

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

31 March 2004

The Cayman Islands Financial Services Association has expressed support for the government’s decision to opt for exchange of banking information when the European Savings Tax Directive comes into force, scheduled for January 2005.

"Should the Directive become fully implemented as planned in January 2005, we believe that automatic information exchange would be consistent with the Cayman Islands' promotion of transparency in its financial services industry", commented Eduardo D'Angelo P. Silva, a Director of CIFSA.

Many other jurisdictions, including the UK dependent territories of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, have opted to implement a transitional withholding tax on interest income for a period of seven years before exchanging information with the tax authorities of EU member states.

However, Cayman Financial Secretary George McCarthy stated that "information exchange would not pose a difficulty to the vast majority of our industry."

He added: "We have always set a high standard of integrity and we do not intend to change that policy now.”

NB: Earlier versions of this story referred to CIFSA as the Cayman Islands regulatory authority. It is in fact the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority that is the regulator, and the error is regretted.

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