At a press briefing on July 17, the Leader of Government Business, McKeeva Bush optimistically reported that the government was nearing removal from the OECD’s grey list; an imminent agreement, to be signed with New Zealand, should place the jurisdiction upon the OECD’s list of territories that have ‘substantially implemented the internationally-agreed standard’ on transparency and information exchange.
“The Cayman Islands now has eleven such bilateral agreements in place,” he declared. “It is my intention to secure the twelfth agreement in short order so that the Cayman Islands can be removed from the OECD ‘Grey List’. I’m hoping to sign it this month, and I’ll make an announcement a little later,” he disclosed.
Addressing fallacious concerns that the OECD planned to increase the quota of twelve TIEAs as agreed by G20 countries on April 2 in order to encourage countries to conclude agreements with larger, more significant countries, Bush stated:
“I realise there are some concerns being aired regarding the possibility of the OECD moving the goal post so to speak or that the stated number of twelve agreements may be changed. However based on the discussions I have had with OECD officials, this is highly unlikely.”
Bush added that the Cayman Islands would continue to broaden its network of TIEAs to include ‘the biggest and most reputable countries’, as encouraged by the OECD. To this end, he disclosed that several agreements are at an advanced stage with Italy, Mexico, Germany, France, Australia, Portugal and Canada.
He underlined that as a cooperative jurisdiction, the Cayman Islands would be better placed to preempt developments in the field of information exchange as well as contributing in decision making discussions at the forthcoming OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information to be held in Mexico.
“Our attendance at this meeting will enable the Cayman Islands to have a seat and a voice at the table during the important discussions on the status of the OECD transparency initiative generally and what type of framework may be put in place to monitor the process of implementation across countries.”
“It is best to participate in these initiatives as it gives us not only full insight into what is being planned and discussed, but also an opportunity to provide our own direct input into a process which will inevitably affect us in the future.”
In an additional statement on the matter, Anthony Travers, Chairman of the Cayman Islands’ Financial Services Association, lauded progress on enhancing transparency with other countries.
“We await further clarification on the new OECD approach, but believe it plays to Cayman’s strong suit,” Travers noted. “Cayman has unmatched regulator-to-regulator transparency amongst the offshore financial centres and an unparalleled record of cooperation with all treaty partners seeking tax or all crimes and money-laundering information. Accordingly we have no doubt that the Cayman Islands will exceed any standard set in relation to actual compliance with treaty requests made.”
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