NEWS

Swiss judges find that former compliance officer breached anti-money laundering rules over $700m transfer. A former Coutts banker has been found guilty of breaching anti-money laundering laws by allowing Jho Low, the alleged mastermind of the 1MDB investment scandal, to transfer hundreds of millions into Swiss accounts without warning regulators.    In a judgment on Friday, Switzerland’s top criminal court handed down a fine of SFr50,000 ($55,000) to the banker — a former compliance officer — who it found was guilty of repeatedly ignoring internal warning signs. As is common in many Swiss legal proceedings, the court withheld the identity...

PRIVATE & INTERNATIONAL BANKING NEWS 2020

Following COVID-19, more high-net-worth individuals are exploring overseas options.   In an April interview with the Financial Times, French President Emmanuel Macron said that following the coronavirus, “it’s going to change the nature of globalization.” Writing for The Guardian, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University, Kenneth Rogoff, said, “The post-pandemic world economy seems likely to be a far less globalized economy, with political leaders and publics rejecting openness in a manner unlike anything seen since the tariff wars and competitive devaluations of the 1930s. And the by-product will be not just slower growth but a significant fall in national...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020

China has started tracking down some of its citizens living abroad to collect taxes, surprising expatriates who never had to pay levies back home on overseas income, according to people familiar with the matter.    State-owned enterprises operating in Hong Kong, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the world, told mainland Chinese expats recently to declare their 2019 income so they can pay taxes at home, according to the people, who asked not be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Chinese SOEs are also informing employees working in other places such as...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020

  Investment raised through golden visas almost tripled (192 percent) in May, compared to the same month of 2019, to €146 million, according to statistics from the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF). Last month, the total investment resulting from the granting of Residence Authorisation for Investment (ARI) reached €146,168,473.40, which represents an increase of 192 percent compared to the €50 million recorded in May 2019.   May recorded the highest monthly investment amount raised since March 2017, when €192.4 million were raised in ARI. In relation to April (€28 million), the investment raised more than quintupled (421 percent).   In...

IMMIGRATION BY INVESTMENT NEWS 2020

The jurisdiction of Curacao was created on October 10, 2010 when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved and became two separate jurisdictions, the second being Sint Maarten. Approximately 450 sq km in size with a population of 147,000, Curacao lies about 50 km north of Venezuela; Miami is 2.5 hours by air from Curaçao. Curaçao is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands with full autonomy in internal affairs, and its legal system is based on the civil code. The official (and used) language is Dutch, but Spanish and English are also widely spoken, particularly in the capital, Willemstad. The...

NEWS 2015

Country:                                            Cyprus Region:                                               Europe Currency:                                          Euro (EUR) (€) Languages:                            Greek, English Time Zone:                             UTC +2 Phone Code:                          +357 Communications:                  Good Cyprus is an independent democratic republic, and a member of the Commonwealth. It is prosperous: GDP US$23,500 (2017) per head. The economy is dominated by services, with tourism particularly important. Unemployment is low. The Cyprus Government worked hard to create a favorable offshore tax regime while at the same time maintaining a normal-looking domestic economy, albeit with rates of taxation that are low by international standards. The success of this programme is attested...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2019

Since we established the first family trust in China in September 2012, critics have long complained that many companies are selling family trusts as “Wealth Investment Products” and are misleading clients in this way. I want to stress here today is that selling family trusts purely as “Wealth Investment Products” is certainly not right; however, the absence of proper strategic asset allocation in wealth inheritance planning is very likely to cause the entire wealth inheritance plan to eventually deviate from the established direction, or even completely fail. Convinced of the great importance of asset management, wealth management and asset management...

CORPORATE & FIDUCIARY NEWS 2019

Labuan, Monday 26th August 2019 – With the acceleration of digital revolution in banking, and the advent of 5G driving Industry 4.0, behavioural preference is observed to shift towards online and mobile, from payments to consumption, and in business and trade transactions. China Construction Bank Corporation Labuan Branch (“CCBL”) has been approved by the Labuan Financial Services Authority (“Labuan FSA”) to conduct digital banking activities in the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (“Labuan IBFC”).   A core strategy of the China Construction Bank Corporation (“CCB”) Group is building a digital financial ecosystem with the use of Financial Technology (“FinTech”) to empower customers’ access their...

PRIVATE & INTERNATIONAL BANKING NEWS 2019