Greater cooperation and transparency in the Cayman Islands

Abstract

On 18 February 2009, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with its Maltese counterpart, the Malta Financial Services Authority. The Memorandum puts in place a framework intended to promote mutual cooperation between the two regulators in relation to the exchange of information and requests for assistance over enforcement matters. It formalizes a relationship that had been taking place on an informal basis for some time and brings the total number of such agreements entered into by CIMA to 14. Following on from this, on 11 March 2009, the government of the Cayman Islands announced that it has reached bilateral agreements, including tax information exchange agreements, with the governments of seven Nordic countries (Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). These bilateral agreements are the result of negotiations between each of the Nordic governments and the government of the Cayman Islands that have been ongoing since April 2008. The full content of the agreements will be available on execution by the respective governments in April and June 2009. In addition, on 19 March, the government announced that it has unilaterally extended comprehensive tax information assistance to Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic and Switzerland in relation to civil, administrative and criminal tax matters.