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Grenada to re-open for Offshore Banking
By admin | June 6, 2008
The Caribbean island of Grenada, one of the more scandal-plagued offshore banking centres, is trying to get back into the business. So reports the Christian Science Monitor this week, anyway.
That said, I couldn’t find any other source referring to this, which is odd. Maybe that’s because Grenada hasn’t yet decided which niche to go for:
Angus Smith, executive director of the Grenada Authority for the Regulation of Financial Institutions, says it will be several months before the sector restarts and that he is meeting with consultants to determine whether to focus on banking or other offshore financial services such as mutual funds or trusts. “We’re putting things in place,” he says. “We’re not going to rush into it this time.”
I remember one veteran offshore financier referring to Grenada as one of the “wackier” jurisdictions, and he was certainly trying to be polite. Grenada has been beset by numerous scam scandals, the most famous (or should I sayu infamous) being the First International Bank of Grenada, the capital of which was a photograph of a vast ruby! Grenada licensed more than 40 banks, most of which had collapsed by 2003.
All I can say is we wish Grenada every success. Reputable jurisdictions are always welcome. But they will certainly have an uphill struggle to prove their credentials after all that has gone before.
How different to nearby well regulated jurisdictions like St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia. If you haven’t been to the Caribbean, you might tend to group all these island nations together and assume they are all the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. For now, St Vincent and St Lucia are the only serious players in that part of the Caribbean.
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Topics: Currencies and Cash |
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