Cayman Islands Financial Services

In the middle of February, Maples and Calder made an announcement that Jon Fowler has been appointed as the head of its investment funds group in the Cayman Islands.

Maples and Calder is ranked as the number-1 law firm in the HFMWeek Offshore Legal Survey 2010, which is a survey of offshore law firms that is based on feedback received from onshore hedge fund professionals. According to this survey, most of onshore lawyers rated Maples extremely highly.

Fowler said that Maples and Calder was not just an offshore firm. The firm also has a significant presence in Dublin where it is working with its traditional onshore instructing counsel. According to a recent Lipper survey, the Irish practice, headed by Barry McGrath, increased its market share by over 320%. It is worth noting that it was the only Irish law company that have managed to increase its market share ranking as legal adviser to both domiciled and non-domiciled investment funds for that year.

Maples and Calder is a leading international law firm providing advice on the laws of the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Ireland. It has offices in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Dubai, Dublin, and London. In addition to legal services, the firm offers management, accounting and administration services to structured finance vehicles and investment funds through Maples Finance Limited, which has offices in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Canada, Dubai, Dublin, and Luxembourg.

Insurance company United America Indemnity Ltd. has recently announced that it wants to shift its legal home from the offshore financial jurisdiction of Cayman Islands to Ireland.

The Cayman-based insurer is going to ask shareholder to approve the change of place of incorporation at an upcoming meeting.

As to reasons, the insurer says that Ireland offers a sophisticated regulatory environment as well as an extensive network of international treaties, among other reasons. Previously, the insurance company had been considering to move to Switzerland. However, it was finally decided to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Irish company Global Indemnity PLC.

Earlier this month, Seagate Technology announced its plans to move its legal place of incorporation to Ireland from the Cayman Islands. The reason was the increased international scrutiny of offshore tax havens. It said that, according to proposed US legislation and regulatory measures, tax burden could be increased for companies incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

Anchin, Block & Anchin has established a practice in Cayman Islands in order to provide audit services to funds registered in this jurisdiction.

Anchin, Block & Anchin (Cayman) Ltd., or Anchin Cayman will be managed by Philip Rankin, CPA, as its resident member.

Jeffrey I. Rosenthal, CPA, partner-in-charge of Anchin’s Financial Services Practice, said: “The Cayman Islands have developed into one of the most popular jurisdictions for offshore funds”. He also added that “there has been tremendous growth in the number of funds established in the Cayman Islands, so it was only natural for us establish a presence there.”

Anchin Cayman has been approved by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).

The representative of the Cayman Islands’ financial services industry, Cayman Finance, has welcomed the amendments that were proposed to immigration laws, announced by the jurisdiction’s Prime Minister McKeeva Bush. These were drafted to encourage foreign financial services companies to remain in Cayman.

This announcement was made to respond to changes to the Cayman regime in the recent budget that were necessary for tackling the jurisdiction’s budget deficit. There are concerns that the substantial hikes in company registration fees and annual charges may damage Cayman’s international competitiveness.

In a statement, Cayman Finance said that it “fully endorses the positive steps the government is taking to strengthen the Cayman economy and its financial services industry in these more challenging economic times.”

The founder of a purported New Jersey real-estate investment business, NJ Affordable Homes Corp., was sentenced to 18 years in prison for defrauding mortgage lenders and investors of USD 100 million through a Ponzi scheme.

In April 2009, 61-year-old Wayne Puff admitted in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that he conspired from 1998 to 2005 to get USD 120 million from investors by falsely touting the company’s profits as well as relying on phony mortgage documents.

Wayne Puff promised investors annual returns of 22%, however he defrauded lenders including Washington Mutual Inc., Greenpoint Mortgage Funding Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG. Puff admitted using investor money to pay for trips to the Cayman Islands as well as credit-card expenses, restaurants and investor lawsuit settlements.

New guidelines have been published by Malta. These are guidelines for redomiciling offshore funds to the jurisdiction that were issued because of growing demand from providers for its services.

According to Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), the island’s financial regulator, the guidance provided “a simple, one-stop procedure to be followed by funds intending to redomicile to Malta.”

Malta said that one of the attractions for fund managers was that its regime allows to have external administrators and custodians, while other offshore jurisdictions require local service providers to be used. The number of non-Maltese fund managers licensed by the MFSA at the end of 2009 was 66, and 11 out of these had transferred from offshore centres including the Cayman Islands as well as Jersey, Guernsey, and Bermuda.

Starting on January 4, customs tariffs on nearly all dutiable imports within the Cayman Islands increased.

However, the imported items that were not subject to tariffs previously remained duty free. Also, the tariff increase does not apply to gasoline and diesel fuel.

For most imported products that are subject to duty the increase will be 2%, but this increase in duty is not entirely across the board.

According to the US press, paticularly the Examiner, Interpol will not be arresting American citizens on their own soil, without oversight from our own law enforcement agencies. On December 30, 2009, the paper said that a left-wing coup is not underway, and there will be no liberal-run Gulags or concentration camps. The paper suggested that, instead, there will be more cooperation between the United States and Interpol in finding hidden Cayman bank accounts.

The government of the Cayman Islands has recently announced that it is planning to develop legislation with a view to regulate the way personal information is collected and processed by businesses and organizations.

This step will be taken in order to ensure that data privacy is maintained. Also, the new legislation will ensure that individuals are able to access their own personal information held by government entities and private sector groups. The accuracy of such data will be required.

A data protection working group has been appointed by the Cabinet and met in order to consider a framework for introducing such legislation.

According to David Archbold, Chairman from the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA), this group is currently reviewing laws from other jurisdictions that might be relevant to the local situation as well as is developing policy recommendations. He said that “The law will impose requirements on ‘data controllers’ to handle personal information fairly and lawfully.” Also, he noted that “Personal data may only be collected, used, stored and accessed for specified purposes, and must always be adequately safeguarded. Data controllers will be accountable for complying with these principles and liable for breaches, such as unauthorized use or disclosure”.

The group will submit its recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary and Attorney General for an approach to the introduction of such legislation In early 2010. Also, a paper on key issues will be prtepared by the group for public consultation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has observed substantial progress made by the Cayman Islands in the sphere of financial sector regulation. This was stated in IMF’s latest report on the Cayman Islands.

Progress areas identified in the report include changes to legislation, rules and guidance to meet international standards, increases in the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) independence, resources and efficiency, and increased transparency of the funds sector reached by implementing CIMA’s electronic reporting system.

The report provides recommendations for enhancements in 10 areas but it acknowledges that they “are broadly consistent with the priorities already identified by the authorities and in most cases where policy action is already underway.”

The main recommendations of the report are as follows:
- strengthen the legislative structure for the independence of CIMA, beginning with passage of the pending draft amendments to the Monetary Authority Law;
- conduct a formal risk assessment and focus CIMA’s supervisory efforts more directly on the key risks facing the jurisdiction, such as operational and reputation risk;
- formalize and validate the assumptions underlying CIMA’s supervisory approach that relies on the strength of supervision applied elsewhere and the contribution of licensees and other domestic professionals to the oversight of financial intermediaries;
- formulate a robust framework for supervising licensees cross-border and cross-sectorally to help prevent regulatory arbitrage or supervisory gaps;
- draw up contingency plans to handle the failure of important institutions;
- make CIMA’s enforcement powers consistent across all administered legislation and set the monetary penalties high enough to make them effective and dissuasive;
- review the human resource budgeting policy and reassess the process regularly to ensure the continued adequacy and quality of regulatory resources;
- monitor international developments to ensure that the regulatory regime in the jurisdiction incorporates elements of international best practice as it evolves;
- enhance regulatory reporting and disclosure requirements of financial entities;
- implement a risk-based solvency regime for the insurance industry.

It should be noted that the report is based on information that was obtained on March 2-13 during the IMF’s mission to Cayman, as well as on consultations with CIMA. The mission aimed to review developments in the jurisdiction’s supervisory and regulatory framework since the 1st assessment in October 2003. These jurisdictional reviews are part of the Fund’s offshore financial sector assessment program.