By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
A HIGH-ranking Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) official yesterday acknowledged that the Bahamas has made “tremendous progress” towards financial services transparency and claimed that it was “unfair” that the country has still been included on the European Union (EU) blacklist.
In June, the EU published a ‘blacklist’ including the Bahamas and 29 other small jurisdictions and international financial centres (IFCs), on the grounds they were “not doing enough” to crack down on tax avoidance by individuals and multinational companies. The Bahamas’ inclusion on the list was slammed by both the government and the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB).
Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration with the OECD, said yesterday that the Bahamas has made great strides towards transparency. “As the OECD we are extremely happy to recognise that the Bahamas has made tremendous progress towards transparency,” he said. “You are largely compliant on the implementation of the existing standard, which is exchange of information on request. You have committed to the new standard, which is the exchange of information automatically which you will implement as soon as 2018 and there is nothing else you can do for the time being.”
He added: “You have done what you had to do and therefore it is very unfair that you end up on the blacklist which actually is not even a list, it is just a compilation of existing lists which are inconsistent. We are very happy to say that the Bahamas is co-operative, is doing its job has not much more to do except that on the way forward for automatic exchange of information there are a few challenges that we have discussed. We are extremely confident that the Bahamas will implement its commitment.”
Financial Services Minister Hope Strachan said that Mr Saint-Amans, who gave a presentation to members of the financial services industry yesterday, had been able to confirm that the EU blacklisting was not an OECD initiative. Mrs Strachan noted that Mr Saint-Amans spoke not only to the blacklisting but also the base erosion and profit shifting issue which will be the next ‘big item’ for the OECD.
“We believe that Mr Saint-Amans has been able to confirm to industry that the blacklisting was not a OECD initiative and that the industry in the Bahamas is still regarded as a compliant jurisdiction, the industry is still strong and we are able to move forward with the regulatory programmes that the OECD has established over the course of the years,” she said.
Comments
banker 9 years, 2 months ago
Mr. Saint-Amans is a first a diplomat, and then a financial assassin in the pay of the G7. He has been called "The Tip of OECD Sword".
The OECD is largely European-centric. based in Paris, with the notable exceptions of Canada, USA and Australia. So when Mr. Saint-Amans says that it is not the OECD but the European Union that is blacklisting the Bahamas, it is a diplomat being disingenuous for the gain of their goals. It started out as OEEC with the word Europe in its name. The European members of OECD are the driving force and exactly the same members who blacklisted the Bahamas.
Mr. Saint-Amans is the project champion of the OECD BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting)project whose goal is to eliminate tax havens for the G7 and G20 companies. Many key performance indicators are due to be enacted in 2015 and 2016.
The Bahamas has several anti-BEPS entities like the IBC's (international business corporations), funds, trusts and other entities all designed to insulate beneficial owners from taxation. The OECD wants to see all of this gone, and it is the heart and bread & butter of the financial services industry.
The above article is a complete whitewash. If you read Mr. Saint-Amans twitter account, he says that he is coming to the Bahamas not to give a fluffy diplomatic presentation to the BFSB board (which he did) but rather to meet the Prime Minister to work and talk about transparency. Obviously, he had no public pronouncements to make on that front.
Financial Services Minister Hope Strachan is being really naive and gullible to believe that Saint-Amans really thinks that the blacklisting is unfair. He is the voice of French taxation at the EU level and prior to his OECD job, he was responsible for litigating tax cheats in France. He was also responsible for new electricity taxes in France as the Chief of the Energy Regulation Committee. He is a good and faithful servant of those governments who want to shut down the Bahamas model of Financial Services, and Strachan is too dense and gets distracted by his flattery while he is finding the right spot to insert the tip of his sword.
concerned799 9 years, 2 months ago
So starting with all the concessions the Bahamas has made over the past 15 years we are still blacklisted. That's the problem with giving in to these kinds of demands, how do you know there won't just be ever more demands?
The logic of simply reinstating rigid bank secrecy as existed twenty years ago may be to the national interest, and should be examined rather than running on the the treadmill of endless demands to in the end see more blacklist.
banker 9 years, 2 months ago
The re-enactment of the banking secrecy laws will not work. The banks are all foreign and are all susceptible to pressure from the world governments. They would simply pack up and move -- and some of them are contemplating just that. Hard times ahead.
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