services firm in the Cayman Islands. Ruth advises financial
institutions, insurers, funds, international corporations, and private
equity houses on all aspects of corporate and private equity
structuring and regulation.
Harbour Place, 2nd Floor
103 South Church Street
P.O. Box 472, George Town
Grand Cayman KY1-1106
Cayman Islands
+1 345 949 0699 Phone
+1 345 949 8171 Fax
rhatt@thorpalberga.com
www.thorpalberga.com
one of the leading offshore jurisdictions
for international business. While strong
across all business sectors, the Cayman
Islands are perhaps best known for being
one of the leading offshore jurisdictions
for banking and hedge funds. The Cay-
man Islands are the sixth largest banking
center by assets at $1.75 trillion USD
with 40 of the top 50 international bank-
ing organizations holding licenses in
the Cayman Islands.
are 9,431 licensed investment funds in
the Cayman Islands as of September 30,
2011. Insurance is another success story,
with the Cayman Islands being the leader
for health care captives, with health care
being the primary line of business for
256 of the 730 licensed captives.
proximity to the United States are an
obvious draw, the Cayman Islands offer a
first class business platform from which
to do business.
provisions together with the application
of the English common law system have
created an excellent legal framework
to conduct business. The integrity and
robustness of the Cayman Islands legal
system and enforcement by the courts
has proved a vital factor in attracting
business.
The Cayman Islands are a tax neutral
jurisdiction. The Government of the Cay-
man Islands relies on indirect taxation
and does not levy income, profit or corpo-
ration taxes on businesses or individuals,
there is no withholding or deduction of
tax on payments to foreign investors and
no exchange controls.
Transparency Standards are
among the Best in the World
man Islands have full tax transparency
with the United States and proactive tax
reporting with the 27 European Union
member states. The Cayman Islands have
entered into bilateral agreements with 27
countries for the provision of tax informa-
the United States, the United Kingdom,
Japan, China, Germany and Canada. The
Cayman Islands are also on the Organi-
sation for Economic Co-operation and
Development's so-called "white list" of
jurisdictions that substantially imple-
ment international tax standards.
The anti-money laundering legisla-
tion of the Cayman Islands has been
evaluated by the International Monetary
Fund and by the Financial Action Task
Force and is found to be robust.
(CIMA) regulates certain activities such
as the carrying on of banking busi-
ness, the carrying on of trust business,
the carrying on of insurance business,
investment advisory business, company
management and the offering of shares to
the public through investment vehicles
such as mutual funds or hedge funds.
Before these activities can be conducted,
the appropriate registrations or full ap-
plications must be made and licenses ob-
tained from CIMA. CIMA has a reputa-
tion of sensible regulation comparable to
other international financial centers with
a focus on flexible relevant regulation.
CIMA has actively participated in the
setting of international regulatory stan-
dards and sharing of best practices. As
a member of the International Organiza-
tion of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
Cayman has full regulator to regulator
disclosure with all IOSCO members.