Cayman Islands Financial Services

Recently, the feature film has been shot in the Cayman Islands. Last week, the movie named Cayman Went was released at an invitation-only screening at Hollywood Cinema at Camana Bay, Grand Cayman.

According to IMDB, Cayman Went is the story of a fading Hollywood underwater action star whose life takes on new meaning when he’ gets forced to spend time with the eccentric inhabitants of Cayman Brac and their local dive community. Moses Kirkconnell, MLA, said: “This movie is not about money laundering or crooks. It is a family movie with a great environmental message. So it will be a very positive image for Cayman Brac.”

But what is important for the jurisdiction is the economic impact of this production which is estimated to be USD 500 000 over the 2 weeks the feature film was based on the Brac. This half a million is the result of production crew that was working in Cayman and needing a various range of services such as apartment rental, transportation, tourist guides, catering, etc.

It is also hoped that the release of the movie is likely to have a positive economic impact on cayman tourism industry as it will raise the awareness of the cayman Islands to a large audience. This is very timely because currently Cayman is expanding to more nature and family-oriented tourists.

Tanya Campbell has been appointed as its new chief operating officer in Cayman by Deutsche Bank.

She will manage all aspects of Cayman office operations and infrastructure, and will be specifically responsible for private wealth management operations. Tanya Campbell will establish part of the Offshore Group COO team that is headed up by Andreas Tautscher.

Ms Campbell has worked in the financial services industry in the Cayman Islands for 8 years. She joined Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited in December 2007. Before that, she was deputy chief financial officer at an offshore private bank in the Cayman Islands, and had financial reporting responsibility for structured investment and derivative products.

Janet Hislop, chief country officer at Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Ltd welcomed her to a senior position at Deutsche Bank in the Cayman Islands.

Offshore law firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune has announced a recent appointment of funds partner Neal Lomax as head of its Cayman office.

The newly-appointed Lomax is a specialist in corporate work with a particular emphasis on investment funds who is ranked by the Chambers Global, Legal500, IFLR1000 and PLC Which Lawyer international legal directories as one of the leading corporate and finance lawyers in this offshore jurisdiction. Lomax will remain the head of the Funds team in Cayman office. It is worth noting that Neal Lomax has been an attorney in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and an attorney of the High Court of South Africa. Before moving to Cayman, he had practice with Arps, Skadden, and Simmons & Simmons in London, and with Edward Nathan in Johannesburg.

KPMG in the Cayman Islands continues to see success in the number of candidates from Cayman who are interested in a career in the accounting profession. This year one of the leading audit companies announced that it will support 5 new local and overseas scholarship applicants.

These KMPG scholarships are awarded to young students from the Cayman Islands who have shown academic excellence and been willing to study accounting either locally or overseas. The local and overseas KMPG scholarships provide a number of benefits as well as practical work experience, acquaintance with different cultures and opportunities to study abroad.

This year’s overseas scholarship recipients are Daphnie Frederick and Tanja Scott, who will be studying through the completion of their Bachelors degree in Accounting in the United States, while Samantha Hennings will begin her studies overseas in 2009.

KPMG Partner Sheenah Hislop–DaCosta said that KMPG understand “the importance of education in developing the skills needed for tomorrow’s generation”.