Isle Of Man Officials Invited To Westminster

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

12 November 2008

The Isle of Man’s Chief Minister Tony Brown has been invited to Westminster to ensure that relations between the Isle of Man and the United Kingdom government remain "mutually positive and productive."

The invitation follows comments from Chancellor Alistair Darling, who recently described the island as a "tax haven," and suggested that it was time to review the relationship between the UK and the Isle of Man.

The Manx delegation, which also includes Chief Secretary Mary Williams, Director of External Relations Della Fletcher and John Aspden, Chief Executive of the Financial Supervision Commission, will be received in Westminster by Lord Chancellor Jack Straw. They will discuss what needs to be done to maintain a positive and productive relationship between the countries.

The Chief Minister has said that he is awaiting a response from Darling to a letter asking for clarification of his remarks. Brown has also written to the Chairman of the Treasury Committee John McFall to reiterate the Isle of Man government’s submission to the Committee made earlier in the year confirming the Island’s high regulatory standards and commitment to international cooperation and transparency, and to assure Mr McFall that the Isle of Man is doing everything possible to resolve the current banking situation in the best interests of the Kaupthing Singer Friedlander (IOM) depositors.

Brown said: “It is important for depositors, and the people of the Isle of Man, that government moves forward on many levels to resolve the current difficulties. Work continues with the provisional liquidator to find the best solution. To this end, a wide variety of possible options are being examined and considered. At this point, no options have been ruled out.

He added: “I must reiterate that the collapse of KSF (IOM) was not caused by any actions taken by the Isle of Man government which has requested clarification as to the status of over GBP500m belonging to KSF (IOM), representing creditors’ deposits from the bank which were in London when the United Kingdom government put Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (UK) Limited into administration and froze Icelandic assets."

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