Cayman Islands are Outpacing their Regional Competitors

The Cayman Islands continue to outpace their regional offshore financial center competitors when it comes to signing Tax Information Exchange Agreements ("TIEAs").  The G20 countries earlier this year began putting dramatic pressure on offshore financial centers to welcome and accept tax transparency.  The OECD has stated that in order to be an accepted jurisdiction a country must enter into twelve TIEAs.  Since this mandate was announced, the Cayman Islands have been on a rapid pace in order to satisfy this obligation.  The Cayman Islands has signed their twelfth TIEA earlier this year, but they have not stopped there.

It was recently announced that the Cayman Islands government has signed its thirteenth Tax Information Exchange Agreement.  This latest TIEA was signed with France, one of the more aggressive jurisdictions in the battle against tax havens.  One must assume that the declaration that its banks would pull out of tax havens effective March 2010.  France deems a tax haven as a country who does not have the requisite TIEAs signed, an on the "white list" published by the OECD.  

Proof of this threat was recently evidenced when BNP Paribas announced that they were closing their bank in the Bahamas because the Bahamas has failed to enter into twelve TIEAs to date.  The Cayman Islands appear to have taken the global threat more seriously than its regional competitors and continue to blaze the trail in this regard.