Premier and Minister for Financial Services and Commerce André Ebanks, is visiting Trinidad and New York this week as part of ongoing international outreach.
The first leg of the trip saw the premier in Trinidad from 25-26 May to participate in meetings connected to the 62nd Caribbean Financial Action Task Force Plenary and Working Group Meetings in Port of Spain.
The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force is the regional offshoot of one of the world’s most important global financial watchdogs. In December 2027, the force is due to send a team to visit Cayman and investigate the jurisdiction’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing efforts.
In that context, the premier’s visit to Trinidad is part of a wider government effort to ensure Cayman isn’t returned to the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, where it sat from 2021 to 2023.
Even though the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force onsite inspection is expected in December 2027, actions taken in preceding years will be a key part of the evaluation. The government has been busy on this front, with key highlights including: publishing the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) (Amendment) Bill, 2025; establishing the Office for Strategic Action on Illicit Finance; launching the 2025-26 National Risk Assessment; and updating fees to access the beneficial ownership register.
The delegation accompanying the premier to Trinidad included officials from the Office for Strategic Action on Illicit Finance.
“Agenda items during the week include discussions on mutual evaluation procedures, international cooperation, virtual assets and terrorist financing, regional security trends, and preparations for the next round of mutual evaluations,” said a Ministry of Financial Services press release.
From Wednesday, 27 May through Saturday, 30 May, the premier will travel to New York to engage with US industry stakeholders alongside officials from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and Cayman Finance. The Compass understands that the US leg of the tour is more focused on selling the jurisdiction’s merits to potential private-sector partners.
The latest trip follows Ebanks’ Asia engagement tour earlier in the month, when he visited Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan.
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André’s jetting to New York to sell Cayman as a world-class financial centre.
Meanwhile, back home:
– Work permit fees that are among the highest anywhere on the planet.
– A rule that says if your job doesn’t work out within two years, you’re barred from returning for a year – a provision unique to Cayman in its creativity, and not in a good way.
– WORC sitting on permit applications for months while businesses haemorrhage time and money, with no meaningful accountability for the delays.
– A driving licence regime that charges overseas professionals more than anywhere else in the world, for no discernible reason except that it can.
– Routine permit refusals for roles no Caymanian is available or qualified to fill.
– We are cutting recruiting in our Cayman office because it’s too difficult to appeal to quality international candidates.
– We are warning friends and former colleagues not to come to Cayman, because Myles and his whipping boy Andre are clearly appealing to the expat-hating vote, and it’s impossible to predict what dumb stuff they will do next.
The firms André is meeting in New York already know all of this. Offshore firms tell them about our dealing with WORC. Our HR teams track the delays.
You can’t simultaneously tell the world Cayman is open for business and operate a system clearly designed to make skilled professionals feel unwelcome the moment they arrive. The marketing trip won’t fix that. The government that created the problem will have to.
NCFC are destroying financial services.
Financial services firms’ complaints about CIG incompetence and NCFC malicious attacks on our recruiting have concrete consequences. We are encouraging and enabling our clients to move to better-governed jurisdictions:
“Redomiciling your Cayman Islands Company to Singapore:
Singapore amended its companies legislation in 2017 to introduce an inward re-domiciliation regime allowing foreign companies, including companies incorporated in the Cayman Islands, to transfer their registration to Singapore.
https://www.harneys.com/insights/redomiciling-your-cayman-islands-company-to-singapore/“
The fees which fund Cayman will go with them.
You were warned.