Ebanks-Wilks updates financial industry players at Spectrum conference Loop Cayman Islands

Black Immigrant Daily News

The annual Spectrum conference was held at the Ritz Carlton on September 8, 2022. The full-day event, organized by FTS and Spectrum founder, Paul Byles, featured local and international financial players who not only shared insights about the current state of the financial services industry but also innovations for the future development. Parliamentary Secretary and Acting Minister for Financial Services, Commerce, Investment, Innovation, and Social Development, Mrs Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, also joined stakeholders to communicate the government’s vision.

Government’s vision

Regarding the government’s vision for the financial services industry, the Acting Minister highlighted that, although “As a jurisdiction, the Cayman Islands is moving forward responsively and proactively to ensure we are well positioned to meet both regulatory and market developments,” the execution of the jurisdiction’s strategy must be “a collaborative endeavour.” That is, a successful financial industry strategy for the jurisdiction must incorporate “input from all stakeholders both in the strategy’s formation and execution” for it to work for the benefit of the largest number of stakeholders.

Proposals

To carry through on the government’s commitment to improvements in the financial services industry, the Acting Minister shared a number of positive developments. These included the following:

Creation by the Ministry of Financial Services of a single Beneficial Ownership Act, which is expected to be presented to Parliament later this year Passing of digital ID legislation to securely deliver more personalised online services to residents without the need for individuals to repeatedly provide the same information to different government agenciesChanges to the Accountants Act to ensure clarity in legal definitions, allow additional licensing conditions for public accountants, and expand the membership categories for the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional AccountantsEnhancements to the Limited Liability Companies Act, Exempted Limited Partnerships Act and the Companies Act to streamline processes and improve our financial services industry

Other enhancements

In addition to the foregoing proposals, the Acting Minister noted that “the Cayman Islands has made strong progress toward completing our three-point action plan to address the outstanding items of the FATF’s 63 recommended actions for improving our AML/CFT regime, which was issued in February 2021.”

Regarding this, the Acting Minister emphasized that “the focus continues to be on the Cayman Islands’ removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list and our subsequent removal from the EU’s AML list of high-risk third-country jurisdictions.”

In relation to the European Union’s anti-money laundering list, the Acting Minister said:

On the EU front, as you know, in March of this year Cayman automatically was added to the EU’s AML list, as a result of being included in the FATF list… In May of this year, during an engagement trip to Brussels whereby the Minister and I had face to face meetings with EU officials, the EU confirmed it will not require Cayman to complete any additional measures in order for Cayman to be removed from its list. As a result, Cayman’s removal from the EU list should occur shortly after the FATF action plan has been satisfied.

Acting Minister says more industry engagement necessary

In order for Cayman to stay on the right track and continue to have a “strong compliance culture” both on paper and in practice, the Acting Minister said that “Our financial services industry and regulators must work together to prevent and detect financial crimes in Cayman, as ultimately, our desire is for a strong compliance culture…”

The Acting Minister noted that government is committed to making this happen not only through planned international engagements with EU and US policy makers, but also by engaging and networking with local stakeholders.

Having a collaborative viewpoint towards the overall reputation of the Cayman Islands will put us in good stead for market opportunities and effective regulatory practices.

The Acting Minister said.

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