Campbells hosted its eleventh annual Fund Focus conference on 15 November 2013 with a record number of delegates attending and a wide range of topics covered.
Among other areas covered, industry heads and leading representatives from the regulator and the new Minister of Financial Services discussed the development of the Funds industry in the Cayman Islands and the commitment to a public/private relationship.
Mr Patrick Bodden, Deputy Managing Director of CIMA spoke as keynote speaker covering regulatory trends, statistics and developments.
FATCA – US AND CAYMAN ISLANDS SIGN TWO AGREEMENTS
The US Treasury Department and the Cayman Islands Government signed two agreements relating to cooperation on tax information exchange on 29 November 2013. First, the governments signed a non-reciprocal Model 1B Intergovernmental Agreement under the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”). Under the Model 1 agreement Foreign Financial Institutions (“FFIs”) will be required to report tax information regarding accounts and non-financial entities substantially owned by US citizens and US residents directly to the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (the “TIA”) rather than directly to the IRS (which would be the case under Model 2). The TIA is the sole channel in the Cayman Islands for the provision of tax-related information to other governments and will pass that information to the IRS.
Secondly, the Cayman Islands and the U.S. signed a new tax information exchange agreement replacing the original TIEA signed back in 2001. This new agreement outlines the legal channels through which information will be automatically exchanged.
The Cayman Islands will now move forward with legislation that authorizes FFIs to collect and report investor data to the TIA which will implement the standardized data-reporting framework for FATCA.
UK TAX REPORTING COMPLIANCE
On 5 November 2013, the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands signed an intergovernmental agreement (“UK IGA”) to provide for the automatic exchange of financial information relating to UK tax payers who hold accounts in the Cayman Islands, including for Cayman funds with UK taxpayer shareholders.
The UK IGA compels Cayman Islands “financial institutions” (including investment funds) to provide information to the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority on an annual basis, which will then forward on the information to HM Revenue and Customs.
As with the agreements with the US government, the UK IGA requires domestic legislation in Cayman to implement the effect of such.
NEW TIEA WITH POLAND
On November 29 2013 the Cayman Islands also signed an intergovernmental tax exchange agreement with Poland.
CIMA ISSUES CORPORATE GOVERNANCE STATEMENT OF GUIDANCE FOR REGULATED MUTUAL FUNDS
Further to industry consultation, CIMA released, on Friday, December 6, 2013, its Corporate Governance Statement of Guidance for Mutual Funds regulated under the Mutual Funds Law (Revised) (the “Guidance”). The Guidance is a formal adoption of international standards of fund governance and is in line with principles set out in the Weavering case.
CIMA consultation process and the guidance: click here