Cayman Islands Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton said he received confirmation Friday from the United Kingdom that the territory’s recent “high-risk” listing by the U.K.’s financial regulator was done based on old, inaccurate, data.
Mr. Panton said he received a letter from U.K. MP Andrea Leadsom, who has oversight responsibility for the Financial Conduct Authority, on Friday clarifying Britain’s position with regard to the FCA listing. Mr. Panton wrote to Ms. Leadsom on Aug. 25 seeking an explanation.
“The Financial Conduct Authority has removed the list from its website. It is out of date and they are no longer using it,” the letter read. “The U.K. attaches the utmost importance to its relationship with the Cayman Islands, including on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. I am aware of the good work the Cayman Islands [is] doing in this area.”
Mr. Panton said the local government was informed of the list removal earlier, but the latest admission that the FCA list was out of date was important for Cayman.
“As such, the FCA’s review of their methodology is indeed appropriate,” he said. [This was] a misunderstanding which has been resolved.”
The Cayman Islands government said in early September that the FCA confirmed the “high risk” list had been removed from its website and that there were no plans to publish a similar directory of risky countries in the future.
The previously unpublished list of 95 countries was released by the U.K. regulator on its website on July 18 after it had entered the public domain following a freedom of information request earlier in the month.
The Cayman Islands was the only overseas territory and the only major offshore financial center regarded as “high risk” for financial crime by the financial watchdog.
Mr. Panton said earlier that government was “astounded” to find the list included Cayman, in view of its international compliance track record and high ranking in the assessment by the Organisaton for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s 2013 Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. This ranking put Cayman on par with the U.K. and higher than most G8 countries.
Mr. Panton said he was encouraged by the general level of support government received from the public regarding the FCA’s “high risk” listing and its potential effect on the country’s standard of living. “There is broader understanding among the general public [about the impact of the financial services industry] than one would have thought,” Mr. Panton said.
Beneficial ownership
Mr. Panton also said government has completed its internal analysis of the U.K.’s proposal regarding a beneficial ownership registry for companies and trusts registered in Britain and its overseas territories.
The minister said Cayman is working on “an action plan for the next two years” that would hopefully reveal its “commitment to the [U.K.] prime minister’s agenda.”
Mr. Panton did not state what Cayman’s response would be to the proposal from Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr. Cameron has sought the publication of the names of beneficial owners for companies and trusts within the U.K. and has invited British territories to follow suit.
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Well I declare ! How could the Brits make such an error of oversight. Well I guess it is human to err.
Well, thats nice that they took us off the list. But did they tell the world it was a mistake? You know like a little notation that it was a clerical error and that we are in good standing?