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Saint Vincent and Grenadines Updates International Banking Law
By admin | July 11, 2008
St Vincent and Grenadines, in the Caribbean, has just improved and secured its offshore banking industry, by reducing the possibility of outside interference.
Long term readers of this blog will be aware that we sometimes recommend St Vincent and Grenadines as a good jurisdiction for IBCs and offshore banking. We have good contacts with lawyers there, and a friendly and helpful bank which opens accounts by mail, has full internet banking, debit card services, low opening deposits, and deals in USD, EUR, CAD, GBP and JPY.
According to and article in The Vincentian newspaper, the Amendment Bill to the International Bank Act of 2004 was passed in Parliament on 29th May, 2008.
The major change is that it curtails the role played by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) in the supervision of the jurisdiction’s banking sector. The ECCB is a regional monetary authority based in St Kitts, which is responsible for the local currency shared by a number of island nations in the region, the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD)
In 2001, in response to the blacklisting by the FATF, SVG’s legislation was substantially amended. The government, in its attempt to ensure that the international banking sector was more transparent, took the strategic decision that the ECCB should play a significant role to play in the supervision of the international banks in SVG, in conjunction with the domestic regulator.
It is this rule that has been scaled back, indeed almost eliminated, by the new legislation. Regulation of St Vincent’s banks will now be the responsibility of the local regulator in the capital Kingstown. Bringing everything back “in house” so as to speak, reduces the risk of outside interference and breaches of banking confidentiality
The tightening of the regulatory regime in 2001 resulted in a sharp drop in the number of offshore banks operating in the jurisdiction, from 40 in 2001 to just 7 today. However, Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is reportedly in no hurry to reverse this trend. “It is the rushing of the international banks under the previous government that got us into real trouble,” he was quoted as saying by The Vincentian.
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Topics: Banks and banking offshore | 3 Comments »
3 Responses to “Saint Vincent and Grenadines Updates International Banking Law”
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July 20th, 2008 at 12:05 am
[...] Saint Vincent and Grenadines Updates International Banking LawSt Vincent and Grenadines, in the Caribbean, has just improved and secured its offshore banking industry, by reducing the possibility of outside interference. Long term readers of this blog will be aware that we sometimes recommend St … [...]
August 10th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
[...] Saint Vincent and Grenadines Updates International Banking LawSt Vincent and Grenadines, in the Caribbean, has just improved and secured its offshore banking industry, by reducing the possibility of outside interference. Long term readers of this blog will be aware that we sometimes recommend St … [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
[...] Saint Vincent and Grenadines Updates International Banking LawSt Vincent and Grenadines, in the Caribbean, has just improved and secured its offshore banking industry, by reducing the possibility of outside interference. Long term readers of this blog will be aware that we sometimes recommend St … [...]