News Releases


 

31st January, 2007  -  IFSA Executive Director

Please be informed Mrs. Louise Mitchell-Joseph has resigned as Executive Director of IFSA, effective 31st January 2007. Until a new Executive Director is appointed, Mr. Dougal James, Deputy Executive Director of IFSA, will act as Executive Director.

27th December, 2006  - Swiss Trust Bank License revoked by IFSA

The International Financial Services Authority revoked the license of STB Swiss Trust Bank Ltd. (44 BK 2001) on the 27th December 2006.  The bank now has to appoint a liquidator.  Please be advised that this bank is no longer license to conduct any business.

6th July, 2006  -  Amendments to UN (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Act and FIU Act

Please be informed that parliament has enacted (on 29^th June, 2006) amendments to the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Act, 2002 and the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, 2001 to ensure compliance with recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) which stipulated that financial institutions should be compelled to report all suspicious activity related to terrorism to the Financial Intelligence Unit.

A copy of the amendments, once assented to by the Governor-General, can be obtained at the Government Printing Office.

2nd March, 2006  -  OECD Issues Disclaimer on 2000 Black List

In a move that is long overdue, the OECD has finally issued a disclaimer to the 2000 Progress Report, in a press release. In a press release they stated, “The [2000] report includes a list of tax havens… that list should be seen in its historical context”. This list was the infamous “black list” that cast a negative light on the financial systems of the countries listed, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The release further acknowledges that “more than five years have passed since the publication of the OECD list contained in the 2000 Report and positive changes have occurred in individual countries… the list has not been updated to reflect such changes.” In other words, the OECD is now saying that it is not safe to rely on that list in determining the reputability of a particular financial center.

Countries such as St. Vincent, together with their non-OECD sister states, have tirelessly lobbied the OECD for a removal of this harmful list. Finally our efforts have paid off in having the OECD publicly acknowledge that the list is flawed.

While the list was issued some 5 years ago, it has continued to have a negative impact on the image those countries ‘blacklisted’ long past its initial publication date. The placing of a disclaimer on this list is a welcomed response to the tremendous efforts and resources that St. Vincent and other non-OECD countries have put towards ensuring that their financial systems are regulated in accordance with best international practices.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an active member in the dialogue with the OECD at the level of the OECD Global Forum, where OECD and non-OECD members meet to discuss moving towards a level playing field in transparency and information exchange.

14th September, 2005  -  Liquidation Information

IFSA has recently revoked the banking licenses of the offshore banks listed below.  The Attorney General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has applied to and received an order from the High Court to have these banks wound up.  Liquidators have been appointed and their contact information is also listed below.  All depositors and other creditors should file their claims with the respective liquidators.

7th September, 2005  -  PDP Bank Licence revoked by IFSA

On August 30th, 2005, the International Financial Services Authority revoked the licence for PDP International Bank, 46 BK 2004.

The Bank now has to appoint a Liquidator that has been approved by IFSA. Persons who are creditors of this bank will be required to lodge their claims with the Liquidator. Once the Liquidator has been appointed, the Authority will post the contact information to this website under “News/Events”.

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10th August, 2005  -  Discontinuation of Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s involvement in the
                                 regulation/supervision of banks licensed under the International
                                 Banks Act

Due to a decision made by the Monetary Council, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has given notice to terminate its involvement in the regulation/supervision of the International Banking sector in St Vincent and the Grenadines . Notice date May 24^th 2005.

ECCB’s termination will be conducted in three (3) phases:

(i)                   Upon amendment of the International Banks Act or within six (6) months of the notice date, whichever is later, the ECCB will discontinue its participation in onsite examinations of banks licensed under the International Banks Act.

(ii)                 Upon amendment of the International Banks Act or within twelve (12) months of the notice date, whichever is later, the ECCB will cease to provide recommendations on the approval of shareholders, directors and senior officers.

(iii)                Upon amendment of the International Banks Act or within eighteen (18) months of the notice date, whichever is later, the ECCB will cease to provide recommendations on the licensing of banks licensed under the International Banks Act.

The decision for the ECCB to discontinue its services as mentioned above is applicable to all the islands in the EC dollar region, except in the case of International Bank affiliates of institutions licensed under the regional “Banking Act”.

10th August, 2005  -  IFSA's Executive Director

Ms. Louise Mitchell, Executive Director of the International Financial Services Authority will be on maternity leave effective August 29^th 2005. During Ms. Mitchell’s absence, Mr. Dougal James, Deputy Executive Director, International Financial Services Authority will act as Executive Director, International Financial Services Authority. Ms. Mitchell is scheduled to resume her duties at IFSA on or about the 1^st February 2006.  Please be so guided.  

15th June, 2005  -  Louise Mitchell's presentation to Euromoney Annual Offshore Seminar, UK

Ms. Louise Mitchell, IFSA's Executive Director,  presented a paper at the Euromoney Annual Offshore Seminar in London, UK on May 18, 2005. Her paper was entitled 'Reviewing the OECD Harmful Tax Initiative'. 

View presentation:  Reviewing the OECD Harmful Tax Initiative (PDF 40KB)

18th April, 2005  -  IFSA Revokes Bank Licenses

The International Financial Services Authority has recently revoked the licences for the following Class I banks:

     Horizon International Bank Limited, on April 4, 2005
     Transglobal Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005
     Triton Capital Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005

The IFSA has requested that the Attorney General apply to the Court to have these banks wound up and liquidators appointed within the next few days.  Persons who are creditors of such banks will be required to lodge their claims with the relevant liquidators. 

In addition, Amco Bank has surrendered its banking licence and has gone into voluntary liquidation.

After the delisting of St. Vincent and the Grenadines from the FATF list of Non-cooperating countries, the Authority continues to show a low tolerance towards financial institutions that are not in compliance with laws and regulations.  As regulators, we expect that the institutions conducting business in this jurisdiction have a strong physical presence, to be compliant with the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction and abide by prudential banking practices.



23rd March, 2005  -  ITIO Barbados Meeting Reviews IOSCO and FSF Initiatives

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, represented by "Ms. Louise Mitchell presented a paper at the Euromoney Annual Offshore Seminar in London, UK on May 18, 2005. Her paper was entitled 'Reviewing the OECD Harmful Tax Initiative'. Attached is a copy of her presentation". attended an The International Trade and Investment Organisation (ITIO) in Barbados on March March 17-18, 2005. The Barbados meeting formally established its Secretariat’s headquarters in Barbados and appointed as its Executive Director Ms Francoise Hendy.

The meeting expressed concern with the International Organisation of Securities Commissioners’ (IOSCO) endorsement of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) past work that led to the labelling of a number of countries as non-cooperative. This support appeared in IOSCO’s February 2005 report, ‘Strengthening Capital Markets Against Financial Fraud’, and is of concern in the light of what is now known and accepted about the unfairness of the earlier FATF process. Once again there is disproportionate focus on the offshore financial centres (OFC) reminiscent of the spate of blacklistings in 2000.  This is despite the acknowledged improvements by OFCs, which in many cases have better regulatory frameworks than onshore jurisdictions.

The meeting also noted that in tandem with this development the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) announced on 11 March, 2005 its intention to use the same discriminatory processes to advance the initiatives of FSF members, including the OECD, the IAIS, and IOSCO. The FSF is proposing to rely on reports by the IMF, IOSCO as well as other unidentified ‘bodies’ and complaints by its member national authorities when taking action against an OFC. The FSF proposes to use varying bullying tactics including publishing the names of what it perceives as non-cooperative OFCs. Once again the focus and negative presumptions are on the OFCs being potentially problematic, without any corresponding consideration of, or process for dealing with, violations by its own members.

According to ITIO Chair, Ms Deborah Drummond of the Cayman Islands “the principles of fairness, transparency and non-discrimination that should characterise a level playing field continue to be absent from the processes that are proposed by the IOSCO and the FSF initiatives.”

The ITIO also examined the implications of these new developments for the progress achieved thus far at the OECD Global Forum level.

According to Ms Mitchell, St. Vincent and the Grenadines welcomes the establishment of the ITIO Secretariat in Barbados and anticipates that the ITIO will play an enhanced role in achieving fairness, transparency and non-discrimination in the setting of global standards now that it has a dedicated Secretariat.

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On December 28, 2004, St. Vincent and the Grenadines implemented some of the lowest, most competitive international financial services fees in the Caribbean region and a much simplified fee structure.  Our new fees came about after the industry’s regulator, the International Financial Services Authority conducted several rounds of consultations with industry service providers and other stakeholders.  When you team our low fees with our low cost of living and operational costs, SVG becomes one of the most cost effective jurisdictions for doing business.

To view the new fee structure please browse our "Fees" page.  

In March 2004, the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines amended the Registered Agent and Trustee Licensing Act, 1996 to permit foreign nationals to become Registered Agents and Trustees.  In order for foreign nationals to do so, they will first have to form a local company and should contact a local Attorney to assist them with this process.

As part of this new move, we have added the Registered Agent and Trustee Licensing Act, 1996 with its Amendments as well as its Statutory Rules and Orders to our website.  This can be found under the section ‘Laws and Regulations’.  In early 2005, we will also be adding the Companies Act, 1994 which covers the formation of local companies.

There has been an increased demand for our mutual fund licenses and bank licenses.  In order to facilitate the application process and give some insight into the qualifications the Authority looks for in applicants, we have added checklists to our website.  If all items on the respective checklists are submitted, then it will greatly assist us when processing applications.  Turnaround time improves when there is little need to request additional information.

Both checklists can be found under the section ‘Laws and Regulations’.

The first was the proposal to postpone the discussion on the imposition of sanctions on countries that fail to comply with the OECD initiative. SVG proposed that given the fact that there are many unresolved issues on the table, such as the issue of a level playing field, that it was premature to address the issue of ‘defensive measures.’ It is the imposition of such sanctions that would give real weight to the OECD initiative, which for the time being has been put on hold.

The second proposal was that the OECD should not dictate that countries ‘should’ take measures TO create a level playing field by the year 2006. It was presented that while the OECD and non-OECD members pursue benchmarking exercises to determine the status of the playing field, that the date of 2006 should be removed. The date of 2006 was the date that countries like SVG originally agreed to in the famous ‘commitment letters’ for the sharing of civil tax information. The compromise reached was the removal of the date of 2006 and the changing of the language from ‘should’ to ‘are encouraged’. The removal of the date by the OECD now leaves open and indefinite the timeframe for the original commitments.

In response to the OECD’s continued efforts to ‘encourage’ countries to move ahead in the sharing of tax information, St. Vincent and the Grenadines reiterated its position that it will not seek to actively implement its commitment to the sharing of tax information, while the issues of the level playing field remain unresolved. St. Vincent and the Grenadines indicated that it would not volunteer to be ‘the first off the block’ to institute measures that could put SVG at a competitive disadvantage while countries like Switzerland resist such initiatives.

The OECD has conceded both the date as well as the treatment of the imposition of sanctions because they in short have not been able to get compliance of their own member states. The famous EU Savings Tax Directive, which would allow for the sharing of information among EU states continues to be resisted by countries such as Switzerland , Luxembourg , Liechtenstein and Austria and the USA . The EU is having difficultly implementing even the watered down ‘compromise’ Directive. As such, OECD members willingly agreed to postpone OECD deadlines as they have not been able to resolve these issues in their home countries.

Another proposal made by several non-OECD states including SVG that was formally adopted in Berlin is that the OECD initiative must be widened to include significant financial centers that to date have been excluded from the process.  The list of such countries are Andorra, Barbados, Brunei, Costa Rica, Dubai, Guatemala, Hong Kong-China, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Macao-China, Malaysia (Labuan), Marshall Islands, Monaco, Philippines, Singapore, Uruguay. The Berlin meeting agreed to actively seek to engage such countries at the level of the Global Forum in the OECD initiative.

The Government of SVG also appealed to the OECD Global Forum to retool its process to ensure that mutual benefits are derived from countries sharing tax information. The new developments at the OECD suggest the OECD member states are beginning to recognize that the unilateral sharing of tax information, without any reciprocal advantages is indeed unfair.

The USA position taken in Berlin was that the OECD cannot dictate the tax policies of states. This position is a great departure from the original position taken by the OECD back in 1998. The OECD initiative is now restricted to encouraging the sharing of tax information and transparency.  

Louise Mitchell
Executive Director (Ag) IFSA
SVG Representative at OECD meeting Berlin
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24th May, 2004  -  New online registration system for offshore Companies

On Friday May 21, 2004 some 13 companies represented by 17 persons attended a training session conducted by Ron Slocum of Global Isle Ltd. on the electronic incorporation of international business companies (IBCs) and other uses of the online registry offered by IFSA to the service providers. On Saturday May 22, 2004 IFSA employees had a similar training session conducted by Mr Slocum, who traveled from California to conduct the training.

The new system of online incorporation of companies, which is active as of Monday May 24, 2004 allows offshore agents to instantaneously register a company online. While in the past IFSA promised that within one day agents could file documents and receive company certificates, IFSA now commits to ensuring that within three hours maximum of the filing of a document online, company documents will be available for collection. This fast turn around time will make the jurisdiction much more marketable. Only licensed agents have access to the online system through secure passwords.

The online registry system also allows agents to pay their annual fees online, to reserve company names as well as conduct searches of company files, including those registered by other agents.

All of the remote services that will now be provided online may be paid for in advance through an automated pre-payment system. Agents will for example, based on projected incorporations make a pre-payment on their account, and the value of transactions will be automatically be deducted as the services are used.

The electronic incorporation of companies is one of the many services that will become available online. Soon international banks will be required to file their quarterly returns online. The use of electronic filing is part of the commitment of the Authority to ensure increased efficiency in the international finance sector.

Louise Mitchell
Acting Executive Director
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY 

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13th November, 2003  -  International Business Companies (Amendment) Regulations 2003

By virtue of the International Business Companies (Amendment) Regulations, 2003 – S.R.O. No. 31 of 2003, the International Business Companies regulations referred to as the “principal regulations” are amended in regulation (16) by deleting the words “without charge”.

Inserting items 12 - 27 amends the first schedule to the principal regulations.

The new regulation, gazetted on 19^th August 2003 us hereby posted on our website for information and advise and can be purchased from the Government Printer at a cost of EC $1.60.

Download/view:

International Business Companies Amendment Regulations 2003 (7KB)

If you  do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC, please click on the Adobe Acrobat Reader Image to download and install this software.

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12th November, 2003  -  Mustique Launching of IFSA

Regulators and practitioners in the financial services industry gathered together on the prestigious island of Mustique on October 29, 2003 to launch the changing of the name of the Offshore Finance Authority to the International Financial Services Authority (IFSA) and to explore the new financial environment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines . The Seminar was hosted by the Mustique Company and IFSA. 

Bryan Jeeves of St. Vincent Trust Services, one of the most long standing players in the industry; Isaac Legair, President of the Registered Agents Association; and Nigel Bailey, an insurance practitioner from the BVI also addressed the gathering. Bryan Alexander, Managing Director of the Mustique Company spoke about the genesis and uniqueness of the Mustique Company development.

There were over 60 participants including top representatives from domestic banks, including First Caribbean and RBTT, Savings and Loan financial institutions, private international banks, building societies, lawyers and other financial service providers.

Speaking on the new name of the Authority, Deputy Governor Errol Allen said:

“The change of name to International Financial Services Authority must however be seen in its proper context.  If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared if necessary to change everything about itself, except its beliefs, as it moves through corporate life.  The only sacred part in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business.  It therefore follows that our organization can change its operating practices and business strategies constantly, in response to a changing world.”  

Speaking about the Mustique project, John C Clark, Former President of the Toronto Stock Exchange, said “if I were to say that there is one thing that all homeowners in Mustique have in common is the belief in the inevitability of success”. There are no failures, just deferrals of success.”  

If the Mustique seminar is an indication of things to come, the international financial services industry is well positioned for success.

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St. Vincent and the Grenadines, represented by Ms Louise Mitchell, Acting Offshore Finance Inspector, also called on the OECD to abandon once and for all the idea of ‘naming and shaming’ jurisdictions. The OECD was also asked by St. Vincent and the Grenadines to address the fact that countries like Hong Kong and Singapore remain outside of the OECD initiative.

On October 29, 2003 the Offshore Finance Authority will launch its new name – the International Financial Services Authority - with a one-day seminar at the Cotton House, Mustique. The seminar is kindly co-sponsored by the Mustique Company. With speakers ranging from Caribbean diplomat and Deputy Chair of the CFATF Sir Ronald Sanders to the Manager of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange, Baljit Vohra, the seminar will examine the new financial environment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the region.

Participants are asked to register early, as limited places are available. See below for further details.

The cost of attending the seminar is EC$250. This cost covers lunch and coffee breaks at the Cotton House as well as seminar documentation.

Please complete the following form and send it together with a cheque payable to the Accountant General for EC$250.00 to the Offshore Finance Authority. Limited places are available. Early booking is recommended. Bookings will be confirmed upon receipt of payment.

The Authority will facilitate transportation arrangements by boat, please contact Manager- Administration, Mrs. Anetha Bonadie for further details:

Tel: (784) 456-2577 or by Fax: (784) 457- 2568
Email: ofsh.fin@caribsurf.com or louise@vincysurf.com

Please review the full documentation (PDF format 18KB) on the launching of the IFSA including information on speakers scheduled to attend.

If you  do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC, please click on the Adobe Acrobat Reader Image to download and install this software.

 

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