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The British Virgin Islands' financial services promotion agency, BVI House Asia, recently held a seminar in Hong Kong to highlight the impact of the territory's new probate rules. More than 80 professionals heard that around 40 percent of BVI companies are owned by individuals in Asia, particularly from China and Hong Kong, and they will be affected by new rules on non-contentious probate and estate administration recently implemented at the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. The territory's new searchable beneficial ownership register was also discussed. Seminar attendees were told that following the death of a beneficial owner, a company must notify...

NEWS 2020

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has released figures showing continued growth in the island's financial services sector during 2017, particularly in the areas of insurance business, investment services, investment funds, and trusts. The number of insurance undertakings authorized to conduct insurance activities under the Insurance Business Act reached 63 at the end of 2017, representing an increase of three net licenses when compared with the previous year, and registration certificates were granted to five new retirement schemes. Investment services registered growth in 2017, with 162 investment services companies licensed with the Authority at year-end, a net increase of six...

NEWS 2020

Gibraltar's Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia, has told a cross-party delegation of UK parliamentarians that Gibraltar "will not cede an inch of its sovereignty, jurisdiction, and control," discussing Spanish relations amid Brexit talks. He made the comments in response to media reports concerning Spain's continued claims to the land on which Gibraltar Airport is located. This land is not subject to the Treaty of Utrecht, which forms part of the legal basis for the UK's sovereignty over Gibraltar. Garcia said that while Gibraltar and Spain's red lines are well known, there is scope to agree practical, modern solutions which satisfy...

NEWS 2020

Guernsey's Chief Minister, Gavin St Pier, has told the island's parliament that Guernsey will make beneficial ownership information publicly accessible if it becomes an internationally adopted standard. "It must be a standard agreed by all jurisdictions – there must be a level playing field," said St Pier, highlighting that public registers are not yet the agreed policy of the G20 countries. St Pier also said Guernsey would volunteer evidence to a new inquiry into tax avoidance and evasion by the UK's House of Commons Treasury Select Sub-Committee in order to reinforce this point to the UK Parliament. The statement by...

NEWS 2020

Hong Kong's Government has published three bills to establish a new open-ended fund company regime. The new OFC regime is scheduled to start on July 30, 2018, and will give fund managers the option of setting up a fund in the form of a company, in addition to the existing unit trust form. A government spokesperson said this additional choice should help diversify Hong Kong's fund domiciliation platform and build up its fund manufacturing capabilities. The new OFC regime complements a recently enacted 2017-18 Budget initiative, which stipulates that OFCs will be exempt from profits tax, like their onshore counterparts,...

NEWS 2020

Malta's Parliament is considering three bills that would regulate the use of distributed ledger technology (blockchain) by regulated entities. The bills - the Malta Digital Innovation Authority Bill, the Innovative Technology Arrangements and Services Bill, and the Virtual Financial Asset Bill - were introduced into the island's legislature last week by Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy, and Innovation, and are intended to establish Malta as a center for the development and use of distributed ledger technology. In short, a blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger – a continuously growing list of records, or "blocks," which are...

NEWS 2020

The British Overseas Territories have condemned a UK Government proposal to compel the jurisdictions to publicly disclose the beneficial ownership of legal entities established in their territories. Opposition amendments to the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, which were approved this week by the House of Commons, will require the 14 overseas territories, including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands, to introduce public ownership registers by the end of 2020 or face having the requirement legally imposed by the UK Government. Similar amendments were tabled in respect of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man but have...

NEWS 2020

The Bahamas Government has announced that it will hike the value-added tax rate from 7.5 percent to 12 percent from July 1, 2018. The tax will be removed on basic, edible commodities, except for sugar. It will also be removed on medicines, residential property insurance, utilities (providing taxpayers' bills fall under certain thresholds), and charitable organizations' fund-raising activities. Among the numerous changes announced, the Budget also hikes taxes on gambling activities. A progressive regime, with rates ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent, will be introduced, with an additional five percent duty to be levied on deposits into accounts for...

NEWS 2020