The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General has revealed online access to the civil registry at the Registrar General’s Department was shut down “to preserve the integrity of the data” that it holds.

Ryan Pinder KC, addressing the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Bahamas conference, said full restoration of the online portal was anticipated “within weeks” as a “complete maintenance overhaul and security upgrade” is in process for the civil registry.

“Currently, remote access to the Registrar General’s Department’s Civil Registry Integrated System (CRIS) has been temporarily disabled in order to preserve the integrity of the data in the Registrar General’s Department’s custody. In that regard, a complete maintenance overhaul and security upgrade to CRIS is underway. We are working assiduously to restore access for all users and expect full restoration within weeks,” he said.

This update came less than two weeks after Mr Pinder told Tribune Business that long-standing problems with the Registrar General’s Department’s online portal for the civil registry “are beyond our control” as lawyers and realtors branded the situation “a horror”.

The attorney general said then that he “understands the frustration” over woes that private sector executives say have persisted for up to “six months” and increased both the time and cost associated with real estate transactions.

He pledged that the Government is “doing whatever we can to rectify” the issues caused by the Registrar General’s portal going offline since last summer, which has left attorneys, in particular, unable to conduct rapid and relatively inexpensive searches for title deeds and particular conveyancing documents.

“The issues related to the civil registry are being addressed and should be online in a matter of weeks,” Mr Pinder told this newspaper. “We are looking at a new civil registry platform much as in the same framework as we are going to launch on the commercial side.

“The issues with the current system are beyond our control and we are doing whatever we can to rectify in the short-term pending a new solution. I understand the frustration and delays, but the issues are out of our control on why it has had to be down.” He did not go into specifics on what had caused the online portal to shutdown, but there were suggestions - still unconfirmed - of possible hacking attempts and security breaches.

Besides deeds and documents related to real estate conveyances, the civil registry is also responsible for births, deaths and marriages. These functions make the Registrar General’s Department a hub around which not just the private sector and economy, but the whole of society, functions given that it touches all citizens and residents at some point in their lives.

“In addition, we have received a proposal to put in place a new civil registry online portal developed by the same developers as the new company platform to ensure that we do not have similar frustrations over antiquated technology,” Mr Pinder added.

“This will provide comprehensive search capabilities for civil documents and also allow an integrated online user experience. This will be a significant improvement to what we experience today and the customer service experience will be greatly improved.”

The attorney general said the Registrar General’s Department was aiming to move into its new location on the ground floor of the Bahamas Financial Centre, located at the corner of Shirley and Charlotte Streets in downtown Nassau, by the end of April. And the new companies registry platform - separate and distinct from the civil registry - has now been released to the agency for internal testing and adjustments.

“We have been constructing a new state-of-the-art location that will allow for proper customer service to clients of the registrar general. This will be at the ground floor of the Financial Centre, with specialty services on other floors in the Financial Centre The Registrar General looks to move into their new location soon, forecasted to be the end of April. We believe this will allow a professional atmosphere in a modern customer service setting,” Mr Pinder said.

“As many of you would know we have been developing a new, state-of-the-art online company registry platform. This platform is designed to be similar to the platform used in the Cayman Islands. I am pleased to advise that this week I was able to be given a demonstration of the new corporate registry platform.

“The registry platform has also been released to the Registrar General for internal testing and adjustments.... We have engaged a consultant who is working to assist with the migration of data. The Registrar General will shortly invite private sector representatives to participate in an internal pilot programme of the new company registry. In this exercise, the private sector will test the system and provide meaningful input on the operations and user experience,” Mr Pinder added.

“We will have an opportunity to make adjustments to reflect the comments received from industry. The next phase should be to open the portal up generally to the private sector for new incorporations while we continue to migrate and cleanse the quality of the historical data. Once the migration and scanning is complete the company registry will have all the data and all the services will be widely available.

“There will be options for subscriptions to the service to receive more personalised service and delivery options for larger entities that frequently use the Registrar services.” Mr Pinder reiterated that the Government will assess whether splitting the Registrar General’s Department into separate corporate and civil registries will generate operational efficiencies, and a “preliminary review” has been conducted to determine if legal reforms are needed to facilitate this.

Elsewhere, Mr Pinder said the Government will soon release a public consultation paper on introducing corporate income tax in The Bahamas and its potential impacts. This comes as the G-7/OECD-led initiative on a minimum 15 percent corporate tax rate for multinationals earning 750m euros per annum and above forges ahead.

Under the former Minnis administration, The Bahamas has already agreed to comply with this initiative, which would impose a 15 percent minimum tax on Bahamas-based entities that are part of such groups. “A corporate income tax is clearly a novel approach in The Bahamas and will have significant regulatory reform for the country in tax administration, affecting almost every area of the cross-border economy,” Mr Pinder said.

“We as the Government of The Bahamas have been working internally to prepare for the implementation. We have received a final report on the impact to our economy of a corporate income tax, evaluating at what levels it can be implemented, and we look to release shortly a Green Paper for public consultation on a corporate income tax.”

Mr Pinder added that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard-setter for combating money laundering and other financial crimes, is examining revisions to its recommendations on the transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements such as trusts. Given that much of The Bahamas’ private wealth management business is based on trusts and estate planning, he said this has potentially “material implications” for financial services.

“Recommendation 25 currently requires trustees to obtain and hold information on beneficiaries or classes of beneficiaries. FATF is considering setting the nexus of such obligations to countries where the trustees reside or where the trusts are administered,” the attorney general said, noting that some wanted disclosure obligations to go as far as establishing central registries/databases of their identities.

“Clearly the recent EU ruling on public registers would have an effect on this advocacy,” Mr Pinder said of the Tax Justice Network. “They take it even further, advocating that the FATF should prohibit discretionary trusts or at least consider them to be high risk for secrecy, sanction avoidance and prevention of asset recovery. These positions are rather extreme, but they are the comments being submitted to the FATF.”