The regulatory body, the Anguilla Financial Services Commission (AFSC), held its Annual Meeting with members of the financial services industry at the Wallblake Conference Centre on Monday, October 29, with a large number of representatives in attendance.
The thrust of the meeting was that a well-regulated Financial Services Commission inAnguilla, like everywhere else, can attract an abundance of money and employment to the island. The cooperation of all businesses was therefore being sought in order to bring about a properly-run financial services industry and the kind of wealth it could generate for the island.
The participants in the AFSC Annual Meeting were drawn from various companies and agencies doing business inAnguilla. The sessions, under the theme “Building A Sustainable International Financial Centre,” were addressed byseveral speakers fromAnguillaand overseas. They included Director of the AFSC, Keith Bell; Governor Alistair Harrison; Chairperson of the AFSC, Ms Helen Hatton, from the United Kingdom; Kenneth Baker of the British Virgin Islands and Tina Bryan-Bannister of the AFSA, both of whom spoke on compliance in a successful International Finance Commission; Jim Tehero andArtex Tribeca (Captive Insurance personnel) from the United States; David Conen of KPMG (based in the Cayman Islands)whose presentation was in relation to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA); and Steve Garlick, who presented a review of the activities of Anguilla Finance Limited which he supervises.
“What we want to do is get the industry participants to have an interaction with the Financial Services Commission,” Director of the FSC, Keith Bell, told The Anguillian. “We have the Chairman of the Board here and we have been able to draw up a very interesting programme, particularly the last speaker. He is from FATCA, which is a key issue for offshore jurisdictions.”
Mr. Bell quoted Mr.Jerome Roberts, Chairman of the Anguilla Financial Action Task Force, as saying that the Government would be taking a paper to the Executive Council aimed at setting up a committee or other group of persons to interact with FATCA as part of the island’s offshore financial services. He commented that, according to Mr. Baker, the British Virgin Islands had undertaken to contract a team of lawyers from Washington to advise the BVI Government on FATCA. He said that Mondays’s meeting had provided the FSC with good interaction between itself and the industry representatives as was hoped. “We managed to bring in people from the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands; and a gentleman from Chicago who is going to speak on Captive Insurance,” Mr. Bell added. “I think we have done a good job as far as the agenda is concerned.”
In his remarks, Governor Harrison stressed the importance of respect for the regulator, noting that there had been some instances where the industry was not showing that necessary respect. “We need to raise our game and raise our standards in order to be a well-regulated jurisdiction and therefore that will give us the sort of reputation which brings in the money,” he said.
Chairperson of AFSA, Ms. Helen Hatton, observed that Anguilla was required“to develop its financial services industry in order to increase standards; make more profit for business owners; provide more employment opportunity for the people of Anguilla; bring in more overseas-owned licence holders andsenior management bringing in wealth and deepening the skills-set in the island; and, together, build a centre which attracts more international clients.”
Ms Hatton said Anguilla had an enormous opportunity to develop its financial services industry and to increase the contribution the industry makes to the economy which was badly needed. She pointed out however, that time was running out. “In three years, I see little progress in industry grip, little increase in standards,” she went on. “Be warned, the international standard has gone up, the next time we are assessed the bar will be higher. If standards do not increase, we will fail to clear the bar.” She added that the Government and the regulator, together with Anguilla Finance Limited, must secure better cooperation with the industry.
