No ‘blacklist’ for Cayman

By Brent Fuller, brent@cfp.ky

> Comment on this story

Talk of the Cayman Islands inclusion on a proposed blacklist of tax havens had faded by late Thursday, but the prospect of negative impacts from the G–20 summit in London clearly had the Islands’ elected leaders worried.

“I am praying at this point and time…that the results of the G–20 summit are not as negative as the possibilities are,” Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said at a Thursday morning press briefing.

“We have done everything that we possibly could do,” Mr. Tibbetts added.

An outline of the agreement reached Thursday in London emerged late in the day. It included:

• Sanctions for non–cooperative tax havens and tougher world–wide financial regulations.

• Greater international regulation of hedge funds and credit ratings agencies.

• Stricter control and regulation of pay and bonuses for bankers.

• The poorest countries in the world would receive $100 billion in economic aid in addition to top of the $5 billion economic stimulus already agreed to by the G–20 nations.

• The formation of a Financial Stability Board to work with the International Monetary Fund with a goal of ensuring international cooperation and providing early warnings about threats to the financial system.

“This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery,” United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. “We have agreed to tough standards and sanctions for use against those who don’t come into line in the future.”

According to a posting Thursday on the Financial Times of London website, a blacklist of four jurisdictions had been drawn up. Another 39 countries or territories were placed on the list of jurisdictions that have committed to internationally agreed tax standards, but which have not substantially implemented those plans yet.

The blacklisted four were Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Uruguay.

Cayman was one of the 39 on the middle list of committed jurisdictions where plans had not been substantially implemented. However, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development noted that Cayman’s legislation regarding tax information exchanges was being reviewed.

Read more in Friday’s editions of the Caymanian Compass…